Characterizing Natural Product Mediated Microbial Interactions

Project Summary The human body hosts a diverse microbial community, interacting through the production, detection, and utilization of a structurally diverse set of specialized metabolites. These metabolites influence community structure by mediating commensal, competitive, and cooperative intra- and inter-species interactions. However, it the system is perturbed, the community can shift from a benign commensal community to a pathogenic one. My group’s long-term goal is to define metabolite-mediated relationships between members of the human microbiota and elucidate their role in community dynamics. We hypothesize that the metabolite-driven interactions of pathogenic communities influence susceptibility of pathogens to antimicrobial treatment. The overall objective of this proposal is integrate cheminformatics analysis of untargeted metabolomics data with physiologically relevant in vitro model systems to elucidate novel chemistry mediating community recalcitrance to antimicrobial therapies. The proposed research is significant because it will provide a fundamental understanding of how specialized metabolites impact the structure and function of the microbiome.