Role of salivary histatins in influencing host-microbe interactions in the oral cavity

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This project will broadly examine the role of metal availability in influencing host-microbe relationships. Specifically, we will study histatins, a family of metal-binding peptides from human saliva, and how they affect the assembly, dynamics, stability, and vulnerability of the oral microbiota. The project will use approaches and techniques in microbial ecology, microbiology, biochemistry, and bioinorganic chemistry. We will establish laboratory cultures of oral microbes, individually and in combination. We will determine how these cultures respond to changing metal availability by measuring microbial growth, viability, gene expression, protein expression, and metabolism. We will then examine how metal-binding peptides from human saliva, either generated by commercial synthesis or by isolation from saliva, influence the responses of the different microbial cultures to metal. We will also learn biochemical methods to study the interactions between peptides and metals, for example using spectrophotometry to measure metal-binding stoichiometries and affinities.