CAREER: Unlocking Microbial Condensed Tannin Resistance Mechanisms: Scaling from Enzymes to Biomes

被称为缩合单宁(CTs)的化合物影响微生物群落合成生物燃料、为工业废物解毒、在土壤中执行关键的碳循环以及为人类和动物的营养提供燃料的能力。尽管它们在全球具有重要意义，但微生物对CTs的反应目前仍是一个谜。这项研究项目瞄准了这一实质性的知识缺口，以确定在一系列生态系统中降解四氯化碳的微生物及其酶。除了科学进步，该项目还将支持俄亥俄州立大学微生物学入门课程的重大课程开发。通过开发以课程为基础的本科生研究体验(CURE)，该项目将允许数百名本科生-科学家进行真实的研究；经验表明，这些经验可以加强科学教育，促进学生在科学学科中的留存。这个项目将创建一个经过修改的本科生实验班，在那里CURE的学生参与发现和分类科学上新的CT降解微生物，产生的数据将被整合到这个项目的研究目标中。此外，这里产生的科学数据将通过制作一个互动的、基于网络的生物信息学平台，更广泛地传递给科学界。作为综合研究和教育目标的一部分，这项研究将产生CT-微生物相互作用的基本知识，并直接应用于农业、工业和卫生资源管理。今天，介导微生物CT降解的微生物、酶和途径的多样性目前尚不清楚。这项研究项目的首要目标是检验中心假设，即CTs的耐受和降解机制广泛编码在生态系统中的微生物基因组中，但目前代表着一种神秘的微生物新陈代谢。该项目跟踪从生物体到生态系统的CT代谢，确定生物CT耐受和降解的酶催化剂，微生物群落对CT扰动的协调响应，以及跨生态系统的CT新陈代谢的程度。在这里，平行分离和群落基因组学结合表达分析和高分辨率CT代谢物数据将阐明介导CT降解和耐药性的生物、酶和代谢产物。这一研究项目的成果包括：(1)CTs的微生物生理学和生态学知识，(2)发现厌氧微生物常见的新降解酶，(3)开发生物和代谢物特征CT库，从而鉴定微生物多酚及其降解产物。

Compounds known as condensed tannins (CTs) impact the ability of microbial communities to synthesize biofuels, detoxify industrial waste streams, perform critical carbon cycling in soils, and fuel nutrition in humans and animals. Despite their global importance, microbial responses to CTs are currently a mystery. This research project targets this substantial knowledge gap to identify the microorganisms and their enzymes that degrade CTs across a range of ecosystems. Beyond scientific advances, this project will also support significant curricular development in the introductory microbiology course at The Ohio State University. Through the development of a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE), this project will allow hundreds of undergraduate student-scientists to perform authentic research; experiences shown to enhance scientific education and boost retention of students in scientific disciplines. This project will create a modified undergraduate laboratory class where CURE students participate in the discovery and classification of CT degrading microorganisms new to science, generating data that will be integrated into the research aims of this project. Additionally, the scientific data generated here will be transmitted more broadly to the scientific community via the production of an interactive, web-based bioinformatics platform. As part of the integrated research and educational objectives, this research will generate fundamental knowledge of CT-microbe interactions with direct applications to agricultural, industrial, and health resource management. Today the diversity of microorganisms, enzymes, and pathways mediating microbial CT degradation are currently unknown. The overarching goal of this research project is to test the central hypothesis that mechanisms for tolerance and degradation of CTs are widely encoded in microbial genomes across ecosystems, yet currently represent a cryptic microbial metabolism. This project tracks CT metabolism from organismal to ecosystem scales, identifying the enzymatic catalysts of organismal CT tolerance and degradation, the coordinated responses to CT perturbation in microbial communities, and the extent of CT metabolisms across ecosystems. Here, parallel isolate and community genomics paired to expression analyses and high-resolution CT metabolite data will elucidate the organisms, enzymes, and metabolisms mediating CT degradation and resistance. Outcomes from this research project include (1) knowledge of the microbial physiology and ecology of CTs, (2) discovery of novel degradative enzymes that are likely common to anaerobic microorganisms, (3) development of a CT library of biological and metabolite signatures resulting in the identification of microbial polyphenolics and their degradation products.