NMBU will coordinate a new Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network that will advance understanding of how microorganism and host genetics interact. The network will train 11 doctorial students across Europa, three at NMBU.
The new training network (“HoloGen”) is being led by Professor Torgeir R. Hvidsten at KBM. Professor Simen R. Sandve (BIOVIT) and Professor Phil Pope (BIOVIT/KBM) will also supervise doctorial students at NMBU.
In total, the network includes 18 partners consisting of universities, research institutes and industry partners, and will supervise 11 PhD students at seven universities in Europe, three of them at NMBU. The fellowship positions will be announced soon.
One of the PhD NMBU projects entitled ‘Linking gut microbial communities to feed efficiency in Atlantic salmon' is affiliated with the Faculty of Life Sciences and is a collaboration between Dr Gareth Difford and Sandve.
In this PhD-project we aim to understand the link between microbial composition in the Atlantic salmon gut and the salmon metabolism, nutrient utilisation and feed efficiency. Breeding feed efficient animals is a key goal in agri- and aquaculture, which will aid in increasing revenue and improving sustainability of the sector.
Professor Simen Rød Sandve says about the PhD-project:
‘In previous studies we have shown that the Atlantic salmon has simple gut microbial communities, however the composition of these gut microbes are heritable and associated with variation in feed efficiency. This PhD-project will utilise samples from feed efficiency trials in fresh- and sea-water environments and perform associations with microbial community structure.’
Finally, the results, if successful, will be used to define new breeding targets for the salmon breeding industry, but also guide new feed designs for future and more sustainable aqua-feeds.
Project web site: https://www.hologen-network.eu