# Genetic regulation of inter- and intra-species microbial community formation

> **NIH NIH R35** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, MERCED · 2021 · $381,418

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Studies of microorganisms have largely been carried out in free-floating (planktonic) cultures; however, the
environmental and medical impacts of most microorganisms depend on their abilities to form resilient surface-
associated microbial communities called biofilms. Biofilms are the predominant growth state of most
microorganisms on biotic and abiotic surfaces.
The overarching goal of my lab’s research program is to understand the molecular and mechanistic bases of
microbial communities. We are interested in investigating how transcriptional networks underlie the regulation
of gene expression during the development of microbial communities. Our overarching goals are to understand
how these communities are regulated, how they are built, how their specialized properties are elaborated and
maintained, and how these types of behaviors have evolved. We take systems biology approaches to address
these biological questions and explore microbial communities at both the single-species as well as multi-
species levels. The types of microorganisms we study include fungi, bacteria, and archaea, and vary from
those that are found in the environment to commensals and opportunistic pathogens existing in the microbiota
of mammalian hosts. Our central hypothesis is that there should be overlap in the molecular mechanisms used
by microorganisms (even across kingdoms) to form microbial communities. This information will provide new
insights into ways of treating biofilms in industrial and medical settings and, perhaps most importantly, in
preventing them from forming in the first place. More broadly, this work may also shed light on the evolution of
multicellularity in more recently evolved organisms.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10224717
- **Project number:** 5R35GM124594-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, MERCED
- **Principal Investigator:** Clarissa Jane Nobile
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $381,418
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-15 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10224717

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10224717, Genetic regulation of inter- and intra-species microbial community formation (5R35GM124594-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10224717. Licensed CC0.

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