# Chemical profiling of bacterial-fungal interactions to elucidate mechanisms of growth and survival in multi-domain microbial communities

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO · 2020 · $45,016

## Abstract

Recently, interest in microbiomes has exploded as specific members of the microbiome are increasingly
recognized to play key roles in health and disease in humans and many other hosts.[1] While many studies link
microbial composition to biological outcomes, the molecular mechanisms that determine these outcomes are
poorly understood. This is partially due to the difficulty of dealing with the large number of variables present in
complex multi-domain microbial communities. Fermented food microbiomes offer an advantage of being
relatively simple in terms of numbers of microbes present as well as the potential application to human health
through diet. Specifically, cheese rinds are edible biofilms have recently been described as a simplified model
system with highly reproducible patterns of microbial community succession.[2] These rinds are typically
comprised of 10-12 microbes and specific cheeses, like washed or natural rind, have similar microbial genera
present regardless of where the rind is aged across the world. As such, the cheese rind biofilm model can be
used to establish patterns of underlying biochemical processes that drive bacterial-fungal interactions with food
safety and dietary health relevance. For this study I will investigate the molecules produced by bacteria and
fungus in response to different growing partners to assess the chemical output of changing growth partners.
Based on phenotypic screening from collaborators Dutton and Wolfe, I have selected different filamentous fungi
to pair with bacteria for metabolomic analysis. These strains were grown on cheese curd agar in isolation, with
a food contaminant, E. coli, and with a natural growing partner, Pseudomonas psychrophila. I used matrix
assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) to visualize
differences in the presence and spatial distribution of molecules across all conditions. IMS data will be used in
conjunction with tandem mass spectrometry data from chemical extractions of fungal and bacterial metabolites
in order to identify molecules and molecular classes that mediate interactions with bacteria. Three of these fungal
strains exhibit growth inhibition of E. coli, presumably by production of antimicrobial molecules. I am in the
process of purifying and identifying the molecules responsible for inhibition. In the future, I will use HPLC
purification and NMR of bacterial and fungal extracts to confirm suspected identity of molecules and elucidate
novel structures of bioactive molecules. Successful completion of this research will deepen our understanding
of how specialized metabolites are involved in fermented food microbiomes as well allow us to translate the
research to detection of these molecules on the fermented foods themselves.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9905864
- **Project number:** 1F31AT010418-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Jessica Cleary Little
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $45,016
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-01-01 → 2020-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9905864

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9905864, Chemical profiling of bacterial-fungal interactions to elucidate mechanisms of growth and survival in multi-domain microbial communities (1F31AT010418-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9905864. Licensed CC0.

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