The Archaea are best known as microorganisms thriving in extreme environments, but they are in fact present in most ecosystems. As such, they are stable members of the healthy human gut microbiota whose metabolism rely on methanogenesis. Due to the absence of identified pathogens among them, little attention has been paid to archaea and their role in human health and disease is unknown. The archaeal level if decreased in several type of diseases such Crohn’s disease (Pascal et al., 2017), a subtype of premalignant colorectal adenoma as well as in infant developing asthma.
Methanobrevibacter smithii is the most abundant and prevalent archaeon in the gastro-intestinal tract. Despite their low intrinsic level, archaea are thought to profoundly modulate structures and functions of the microbial community notably via their unique metabolism relying on methanogenesis. However, we have no information on the role of archaea in the early maturation of the gut and its microbial community due to the lack of relevant model.
Based on the literature and our preliminary data, our objective is to assess if the early intestinal colonisation by archaea remodel the gut bacterial composition and/or the molecules releases to the host which in turn modifies the immune weaning reaction.
