Anaerobic Microbiology Research Core

ABSTRACT Many Earth ecosystems are devoid of oxygen and are populated by strictly anaerobic microorganisms that contribute essential functions to their microbiomes. To study these microbiomes, the Oklahoma Center for Microbiome Research (OCMR) COBRE aims to provide cutting-edge tools to identify and cultivate strict anaerobes. However, cultivating and characterizing anaerobes requires a highly specialized skillset of exceptional laboratory practices. To provide these research tools an Anaerobic Microbiology Research Core will be established. The Anaerobic Core will support all five research projects in the OCMR, which focus on the roles of anaerobes in their respective hosts. Project 1 (Huang) will determine the genetic basis by which pathogenic anaerobes stimulate oral cancer progression. Project 2 (Kirchberger) will characterize and manipulate host determinants of newly discovered Microviridae that frequently dominate the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) virome by developing anaerobic model systems. Project 3 (Lin) will investigate the interactions of dietary carotenoids and anaerobic members of the GIT, which work together to lessen systemic inflammation. Project 4 (Stubbendieck) will identify and characterize pathogen-specific secondary metabolites produced by commensal anaerobes of the human aerodigestive tract. Project 5 (Vazquez Sanroman) will determine how gut anaerobes induce dysbiosis in the adolescent microbiome- gut-brain axis during opioid abuse and withdrawal in the search for treatments to mitigate the associated debilitating behavioral changes in these patients. The common theme of these diverse projects is the role of anaerobes and the need to study them further. To advance the projects and enable the RPLs to transition to independent R01 funding, the Anaerobic Core will provide resources for anaerobic microbiology that support their research programs. Therefore, the primary goal of the Anaerobic Microbiology Core will be to centralize and expand the anaerobic culturomics resources, services, and training available to COBRE investigators to achieve their specific research aims and long-term career goals. To meet these research goals, the OCMR Anaerobic Core will provide: 1) Culturomics to enable high throughput culture isolation under a wide range of growth conditions and oxygen concentrations, 2) Targeted enrichment to isolate specific microbes based on phenotypic traits, 3) Sequence- guided culture isolation using nanobody-tags to specific organisms followed by cell sorting and targeted cultivation, 4) Culture storage and record keeping, and 5) Downstream services for culture identification and characterization, microbial community analysis, and genomics. Achieving these specific aims will establish a Research Core for Anaerobic Microbiology that accelerates the aforementioned research projects and the entire community of OSU microbiome researchers.