MI007-06 Effect of a Crohn's Disease susceptibility locus on the indigenous microbiota of the gastrointestinal tract

The indigenous gastrointestinal micr ob iota are felt to play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease including Crohn’s disease. To date, detailed examination of the indigenous g ut mic rob iota of Crohn’s patients has not been performed. The proposed project will directly examine a role for the gastrointestinal microbiota in Crohn’s disease via a collaborative study with gastroenter ologists at SUBCONTRACTOR. Microbial ecology analysis, based on retrieval of 16S rRNA-encoding gene sequence analysis will allow comparison of the mucosal community in patients NOD2 with discordant genotypes, a known Crohn’s disease susceptibility locus. Additionally, analysis will allow a determination of the role of the mucosal micr obiota in the development of recurrent disease in patients who have underg one ileocectomy for complicated Crohn’s disease. As part of the proposed work, a 16 S rRNA-encoding gene sequence database will be developed  that will allow linking of clinical “metadata” to DNA sequence data, greatly inc reasing the utility of the sequence data in future studies that investigate the role of the indigenous microbes in gastrointestinal health and disease.