Saturday, May 17, 2025
5/17/2025
Genetic regulation of inter- and intra-species microbial community formation - Project Summary/Abstract Studies of microorganisms have largely been carried out in free-floating (planktonic) cultures; however, the medical, industrial, and environmental impacts of most microorganisms depend on their abilities to form resilient surface-associated microbial communities called biofilms. Biofilms are the predominant growth state of microorganisms on biotic and abiotic surfaces. Biofilms are notorious for forming on any surface that is routinely exposed to moisture, including mucosal surfaces, and implanted medical devices, such as catheters, pacemakers, contact lenses, and prosthetic joints, which all provide a surface and sanctuary for biofilm growth. The human health consequences of biofilm infections are thus significant and can be life-threatening. The focus of my laboratory’s research program is to understand the molecular and mechanistic bases of biofilm microbial communities. We are interested in investigating how transcriptional networks underlie the regulation of gene expression during biofilm development. Our overarching goals are to understand how these communities are regulated, how they are built, how their specialized properties are elaborated and maintained, and how these types of behaviors have evolved. We take systems biology approaches to investigate these fundamental biological questions and explore biofilms at both the single-species as well as multi-species levels. The types of microorganisms we study include fungi, bacteria, and archaea, with a focus on those that are commensals and/or pathogens of humans. Much of our work to date has focused on single-species biofilms formed by the fungal pathogen Candida albicans as well as dual-species biofilms formed between C. albicans and interacting bacterial/archaeal partners that are predominant members of the human microbiota. Our work will provide new insights into ways of detecting and treating biofilms in medical and industrial settings and, perhaps most importantly, in preventing them from forming in the first place. Specifically, in terms of human health, this work has the potential to lead to new prevention, diagnostic, and therapeutic strategies to combat biofilm infections. In the long-term, the information gained from these studies could lead to significant changes in the ways we treat infections and dysbiosis of the microbiota. More broadly, these studies could also shed new light on the evolution of multicellularity in eukaryotes by increasing our understanding of how social behaviors evolve in single-celled microorganisms.
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