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

该项目将广泛研究金属可用性在影响宿主-微生物关系中的作用。具体来说，我们将研究组胺素，一个来自人类唾液的金属结合肽家族，以及它们如何影响口腔微生物群的组装，动力学，稳定性和脆弱性。该项目将使用微生物生态学、微生物学、生物化学和生物无机化学的方法和技术。我们将建立口腔微生物的实验室培养，单独和组合。我们将通过测量微生物的生长、活力、基因表达、蛋白质表达和代谢来确定这些培养物如何应对不断变化的金属可用性。然后，我们将研究如何从人类唾液中的金属结合肽，无论是通过商业合成或从唾液中分离，影响不同的微生物培养物的金属的反应。我们还将学习生物化学方法来研究肽和金属之间的相互作用，例如使用分光光度法来测量金属结合的化学计量和亲和力。

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.