Do human cells age first, or the gut microbiota first?

Wen Yangcheng Evening News reporter Li Gang

There are microorganisms everywhere in nature, what are functional microorganisms? Recently, the 109th lecture of the Pearl River Science Lecture Hall, hosted by Guangzhou Science and Technology Bureau and jointly organized by Guangdong Science Center and Yangcheng Evening News, invited Wu Qingping, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and expert in microbial safety and health, to give a popular science lecture on "Deciphering the Relationship between Functional Microorganisms and Human Health" for fans of the lecture hall.

The gut microbiome determines what you like to eat

Academician Wu Qingping has been engaged in the research of microbial safety and health for a long time, in view of the serious microbial safety risks in China's food industry, starting from basic research, invented advanced common monitoring technology, and established relevant theoretical systems, developed food safety control technology in key industries and advanced standards in line with international standards, solved important scientific problems and key technical problems in food safety, and significantly promoted the continuous improvement of China's food safety science theory and the healthy development of the industry.

Wu Qingping said that the number of microorganisms in the human body is huge, and what food a person likes to eat is also closely related to his intestinal microflora. There are about 2000,60 species of bacteria in the human gut, as well as many more types of viruses. However, many of these viruses are beneficial, and one called bacteriophage plays a role in controlling the balance of microbes in the gut. Microorganisms make up 10% of Earth's biomass, far more than other organisms. However, less than 1% of them are currently known, and less than <>% of microorganisms can be used.

Human aging, is human cells aging first or gut microbiota aging first? Wu Qingping raised such an interesting question.

Wu Qingping said that they had done experiments to transplant the feces of old mice into young mice, and found that the young mice became older. If the feces of young mice are transplanted into old mice, the old mice become younger. This shows how powerful the gut microbes are.

Microorganisms play a big role in the field of health

Wu Qingping said that microorganisms play a great role in traditional industry and life and health. There are no more than 10 substances on Earth that cannot be decomposed and used by microorganisms. The current booming synthetic biology is the use of microorganisms to synthesize substances. A 200-acre edible mushroom factory can produce 3,5 to <>,<> tons of edible mushrooms a year, with a huge production capacity. Therefore, microorganisms also have a place in green manufacturing.

"If a child likes to drink drinks with high sugar content, they are likely to grow into a fat person." Wu Qingping said that if you use microorganisms that can break down sugar, then this problem can be solved.

Microorganisms can be found in trenches and hot springs that are 10,000 meters deep. This fully shows that microorganisms have strong vitality. Therefore, human scientists are constantly trying to transfer these powerful genes in microbes to other animals and plants, so that they can also withstand high pressure and heat.

Wu Qingping said that the microbiology discipline is very young, and with the development of genomics technology, people's understanding of microorganisms has begun to deepen in the direction of gene sequence. Through gene sequencing technology, the metagenomics, metagetranscriptome, metreteome and metabolome of microorganisms can be further understood, and big data can be formed. So life sciences and computers, mathematics, and artificial intelligence have begun to blend together.

Build a large scientific database of food microbiology safety

Therefore, Wu Qingping and his team have been committed to building a large scientific database of food microbiological safety in China for a long time, through which to solve the problem of food hygiene and safety and identify the risks of food safety in the whole country.

According to reports, after nationwide sampling and comprehensive analysis, the team has built 6 databases: risk identification database, strain resource database, distribution database, whole genome database, barcode fingerprint database, and traceability tracking database.

Wu Qingping said that through this scientific big database, the overall risk level of China's food microbial safety can be presented, and what are the pathogenic microorganisms that are mainly polluting.

"Originally, the identification unit was based on the strain, but this time it went deep into the genotype level for identification." Wu Qingping said.

According to reports, on the basis of the big scientific database, we can further study how food hazards are formed and understand their mechanism and mechanism. In this regard, Wu Qingping revealed that the risk identification database of a single library is the largest in the world, the number of bacteria is the largest, and the sequencing volume of a single library is also the largest, and more than 2,200 experimental pathogenic microorganisms have been sequenced, and nearly <> new detection targets have been excavated, successfully achieving full coverage of experimental pathogenic bacteria detection.

After the database is constructed, processing safety control can be carried out for different food industries, and it has cooperated with leading enterprises in key food industries, covering the main food industry chain in China, reducing the microbial contamination rate by more than 90%, providing strong support for food security.

Wu Qingping said that after data monitoring, it was found that the contamination rate of E. coli in food was the highest. Cooked food should not be left for too long after buying home, otherwise the risk of contamination is higher.

What is the use of doing all this work? Wu Qingping said that the first is to establish a method of rapid food inspection, and the other is to establish relevant standards, so as to lay the foundation for national food safety standards.

Taking packaged drinking water as an example, in the past, people did not know what pathogenic bacteria were in drinking water and did not know how to detect them. In 2007, Wu Qingping's team participated in the development of standards for packaged drinking water, and accurately measured the relevant bacteria, thereby ensuring the safety of drinking water.

In addition, by digitizing microbial entities using the latest technology, it is possible to see the structure of microorganisms in a computer, which can be further analyzed.

"We have isolated a pathogenic bacterium, sequenced it to know how pathogenic it is, and how its resistance genes are regulated." Wu Qingping said that there are tens of thousands of sequenced genomes in the database, which plays a very important role in understanding the nature of microorganisms and even the nature of life.

With the increase in human activity, the diversity of many species, including microorganisms, is also decreasing. In this regard, Wu Qingping said: On the one hand, it is necessary to develop and utilize, and on the other hand, it is also necessary to protect it. At present, Wu Qingping's team has established a global edible fungus culture resource bank with more than 16000,<> strains, through global positioning technology, the origin of the strains can be accurately found, and through meteorological data correlation, artificial cultivation and domestication can be further carried out, and finally factory production can be formed.