The Discovery of Novel Metabolic Pathways for the Biosynthesis and Degradation of Complex Carbohydrates within the Human Gut Microbiome

人类肠道微生物组内复杂碳水化合物生物合成和降解的新代谢途径的发现

基本信息

批准号：
10323657
负责人：
Frank M. Raushel
金额：
$ 60.6万
依托单位：
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2021
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2021-02-01 至 2026-01-31
项目状态：
未结题

项目摘要

The primary focus of this research proposal is the discovery and elucidation of novel biochemical pathways for the biosynthesis and metabolism of complex and simple carbohydrates in the human gut microbiome. The total number of genes contained within the distinct bacterial species that inhabit the human gut exceeds the number of human genes by more than two orders of magnitude. The metabolic diversity within these bacteria contributes significantly to the maintenance of human health and physiology. Unfortunately, a significant fraction of the enzymes and metabolic pathways contained within the bacterial species localized in the human gut have an uncertain, unknown, or incorrect functional annotation. This uncertainty demonstrates that a substantial fraction of the metabolic potential found within the human gut microbiome remains to be properly characterized. The experimental approach for the discovery and elucidation of novel biochemical pathways for the metabolism of complex carbohydrates will employ the concerted and synergistic utilization of computational biology, bioinformatics, three-dimensional protein structure determination, metabolomics, and physical screening of focused compound libraries. This investigation will further be directed towards a complete understanding of the assembly and biosynthesis of the diverse capsular polysaccharides in the human pathogen Campylobacter jejuni, the leading cause of human gastroenteritis world-wide. The capsular polysaccharides are important for the invasion and colonization of the host organism and the monosaccharides that comprise the CPS in various strains of C. jejuni are unusual and complex. This endeavor will focus on the elucidation of the molecular pathways for the biosynthesis of the unusual array of monosaccharide building blocks and the associated molecular logic for the directed assembly of unique polysaccharide sequences by a series of sugar transferase enzymes. The determination of the substrate and reaction diversity contained within these newly discovered enzyme-catalyzed reactions will provide unique insights into the molecular mechanisms for the evolution and development of novel enzymatic activities and will provide potential targets for therapeutic intervention.

本研究计划的主要重点是发现和阐明新颖的复杂和简单生物合成和代谢的生化途径人类肠道微生物组中的碳水化合物。内包含的基因总数居住在人类肠道中的不同细菌种类超过了人类基因的数量超过两个数量级。这些细菌内的代谢多样性有助于对维护人体健康和生理机能具有重要意义。不幸的是，一个重大的局部细菌物种中所含酶和代谢途径的比例人类肠道中存在不确定、未知或不正确的功能注释。这不确定性表明，代谢潜力的很大一部分是在人类肠道微生物组仍有待正确表征。实验方法为复合物代谢新生化途径的发现和阐明碳水化合物将采用计算生物学的协同和协同利用，生物信息学、三维蛋白质结构测定、代谢组学和物理筛选重点化合物库。这项调查将进一步针对完全了解不同荚膜的组装和生物合成人类病原体空肠弯曲菌中的多糖是人类疾病的主要原因全世界都有肠胃炎。荚膜多糖对于侵袭和侵袭具有重要作用。宿主生物体和构成 CPS 的单糖在各种环境中的定殖空肠弯曲菌菌株不寻常且复杂。这项工作将集中于阐明一系列不寻常的单糖构件生物合成的分子途径以及独特多糖序列定向组装的相关分子逻辑由一系列糖转移酶产生。底物和反应的测定这些新发现的酶催化反应中包含的多样性将提供对小说进化和发展的分子机制有独特的见解酶活性将为治疗干预提供潜在目标。