Jason M. Crawford
Yale University, USA
Title: Metabolic Alliances and Discords in Human-Microbiota Interactions
Biography
Biography: Jason M. Crawford
Abstract
The human gut microbiota constitute a complex, diverse community of microorganisms that influence human physiology, clinical responses to drugs, and disease progression. Bacterial members of the microbiota produce a literal smorgasbord of small molecule metabolites, the vast majority of which remain unknown, that contribute to the regulation of a wide variety of intramicrobial-, intermicrobial-, and host-bacteria interactions. While bacterial communities at a whole affect microbial composition and host physiology, reductionist approaches can identify specific opportunistic pathogens or beneficial mutualists within these complex populations that regulate host phenotypes in genetically susceptible patients. The reductionist approaches facilitate sourcing of often potent metabolites produced in low amounts, interrogating bacterial metabolic pathways at the genetic level, and establishing molecular modes of action and resistance of individual metabolic pathways at the organismal level. We highlight a series of cell-extrinsic metabolic responses in gut bacteria and their roles in host cell regulation. We then delve deeper into two contrasting examples from the gut: 1) plant-bacteria metabolic axes that could participate in cardiovascular health; and 2) bacterial metabolites and their roles in colorectal cancer initiation.