Seminar: Dr. Eva Kanso, USC

UNC Marine Sciences’ Assistant Professor Alecia Septer hosts a seminar presented by Eva Kanso, Ph.D.

Seminar Title: Ciliary flows actively filter symbiotic bacteria

Presenter Affiliation: University of Southern California, Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

Summary: Our understanding of ciliary activity along internal mucus membranes has been principally restricted to the function of clearing particles and potential pathogens from the cell surfaces. For example, on airway epithelia, motile cilia clear both mucus and inhaled particles, and disruption of this mucociliary transport can lead to airway disease. However, this model is incomplete. Ciliated airway epithelia not only serve a clearance function, but also provide a habitat and a gateway for co-evolved symbionts that play an essential role in the development of the host immune system, and are believed to provide colonization resistance against pathogens. The mechanisms by which internal cilia might facilitate such controlled discrimination remain unknown. Here we propose that ciliary flows serve as a mechanism for selective capture of particles and bacteria. We use the juvenile Hawaiian bobtail squid (E. Scolopes) as an established model system for bacteria-host symbiosis, in conjunction with novel experimental and computational methods for flow visualization and analysis. We show that ciliated epithelia can create fluid-mechanical microenvironments for the active recruitment of the host microbiome.