Fig. 1

C. elegans-E. coli as a host-microbe model to study the impact of dietary and bacterial micronutrients on host health. C. elegans acquires micronutrients primarily through the ingestion of E. coli but can also uptake dietary micronutrients directly from the growth media. Like all bacteria, E. coli synthesizes some micronutrients de novo and uptakes other micronutrients, or their precursors, from its environment. Little is known about how bacteria interact with dietary micronutrients in the provision of micronutrients to the host. In this model system, the supply of micronutrients to C. elegans can be controlled: genetic and pharmacological methods can be used to target specific pathways in both E. coli and C. elegans and the growth media can be chemically defined