A5076476669- Microbial Natural Products and Biosynthesis
- Gut microbiota and health
- Probiotics and Fermented Foods
- Bacterial biofilms and quorum sensing
- Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
- Pneumonia and Respiratory Infections
- Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies
- Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology
- Microbial infections and disease research
- Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Mycobacterium research and diagnosis
- Advanced Biosensing Techniques and Applications
- Respiratory viral infections research
- Cell Image Analysis Techniques
- Tracheal and airway disorders
- Bacteriophages and microbial interactions
- Diatoms and Algae Research
- Innovative Microfluidic and Catalytic Techniques Innovation
- Marine and coastal plant biology
- Diphtheria, Corynebacterium, and Tetanus
- Microbial Metabolism and Applications
- Enterobacteriaceae and Cronobacter Research
- Respiratory and Cough-Related Research
- Plant Diversity and Evolution
- Antimicrobial Peptides and Activities
Oklahoma State University
2023-2025
University of Wisconsin–Madison
2018-2023
Texas A&M University
2015-2018
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
2013
Bacterial secondary metabolites, synthesized by enzymes encoded in biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), can underlie microbiome homeostasis and serve as commercialized products, which have historically been mined from a select group of taxa. While evolutionary approaches proven beneficial for prioritizing BGCs experimental characterization efforts to uncover new natural dedicated bioinformatics tools designed comparative analysis within focal taxa are limited. We thus developed l ineage s...
Resources available in the human nasal cavity are limited. Therefore, to successfully colonize cavity, bacteria must compete for scarce nutrients. Competition may occur directly through interference (e.g., antibiotics) or indirectly by nutrient sequestration. To investigate nature of bacterial competition, we performed coculture inhibition assays between Actinobacteria and Staphylococcus spp. We found that isolates coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) were sensitive growth but aureus...
Moraxella catarrhalis is found almost exclusively within the human respiratory tract. This pathobiont associated with ear infections and development of illnesses, including allergies asthma. Given limited ecological distribution M. catarrhalis, we hypothesized that could leverage nasal microbiomes healthy children without to identify bacteria may represent potential sources therapeutics. Rothia was more abundant in noses compared cold symptoms catarrhalis. We cultured from samples determined...
Bacteria have diverse mechanisms for competition that include biosynthesis of extracellular enzymes and antibiotic metabolites, as well changes in community physiology, such biofilm formation or motility. Considered collectively, networks competitive functions any organism determine success failure competition. How bacteria integrate different to optimize fitness is not studied. Here we study a model interaction between two soil bacteria: Bacillus subtilis Streptomyces sp. Mg1 (S. Mg1). On...
Low-cost, high-throughput nucleic acid sequencing ushered the field of microbial ecology into a new era in which composition nearly every conceivable environment on planet is under examination. However, static "screenshots" derived from sequence-only approaches belie underlying complexity microbe-microbe and microbe-host interactions occurring within these systems. Reductionist experimental models are essential to identify microbes involved characterize molecular mechanisms that manifest as...
Rhinovirus causes many types of respiratory illnesses, ranging from minor colds to exacerbations asthma. Moraxella catarrhalis is an opportunistic pathogen that increased in abundance during rhinovirus illnesses and asthma associated with severity illness through mechanisms are ill-defined. We used a co-infection model human airway epithelium differentiated at the air-liquid interface test hypothesis infection promotes M. adhesion survival on epithelium. Initial experiments showed alone did...
ABSTRACT Bacteria use two-component signaling systems to adapt and respond their competitors changing environments. For instance, competitor bacteria may produce antibiotics other bioactive metabolites sequester nutrients. To survive, some species of escape competition through antibiotic production, biofilm formation, or motility. Specialized metabolite production formation are relatively well understood for bacterial in isolation. How control these functions when present is not studied....
The study of interactions between microorganisms has led to numerous discoveries, from novel antimicrobials insights in microbial ecology. Many approaches used for the require specialized equipment and are expensive time intensive. This paper presents a protocol co-culture interaction assays that inexpensive, scalable large sample numbers, easily adaptable experimental designs. Microorganisms cultured together, with each well representing one pairwise combination microorganisms. A test...
The aerodigestive tract (ADT) is the primary portal through which pathogens and other invading microbes enter body. As direct interface with environment, we hypothesize that ADT microbiota possess biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) for antibiotics specialized metabolites to compete both endogenous exogenous microbes. From 1,214 bacterial genomes, representing 136 genera 387 species colonize ADT, identified 3,895 BGCs. To determine distribution of BGCs bacteria in different sites, aligned...
Abstract We developed lsa BGC, a bioinformatics suite that introduces several new methods to expand on the available infrastructure for genomic and metagenomic-based comparative evolutionary investigation of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). Through application four genera commonly found in skin microbiomes, we uncover multiple novel findings evolution diversity their BGCs. show virulence associated carotenoid staphyloxanthin Staphylococcus aureus is ubiquitous across genus but has largely...
This study used radioimmunoassay (RIA) to explore the relationship between levels of hemolymph ecdysteroids and female reproductive behavior in Schizocosa wolf spiders. Specifically, we investigated circulating ecdysteroid concentrations females 1) likelihood copulate, or receptivity [Experiment I—Schizocosa avida (Walckenaer 1837)], 2) time post copulation (Experiment 2— rovneri Uetz & Dondale 1979) 3) exposure conspecific male courtship 3— uetzi Stratton 1997). In Experiment 1, expected...
The study of interactions between microorganisms has led to numerous discoveries, from novel antimicrobials insights in microbial ecology. Many approaches used for the require specialized equipment and are expensive time intensive. This paper presents a protocol co-culture interaction assays that inexpensive, scalable large sample numbers, easily adaptable experimental designs. Microorganisms cultured together, with each well representing one pairwise combination microorganisms. A test...
In order to develop a further understanding of the evolutionary relationships between different Chlorella algal strains and related species, methods DNA extraction, PCR, sequencing, analysis were tailored our project. With goal an intent affecting biofuel production, from multiple regions cells was targeted. Ribosomal including 18S, ITS1, 5.8S, ITS2, 28S regions; Chloroplastic (the RuBisCO large subunit coding region); Genomic small Mitochondrial (Cytochrome C Oxidase I region) picked be...