Microbial Carb Loading: How gut Bacteroides eat starch

Bacteroides species are some of the most abundant and prevalent bacteria within the human gut microbiome. These organisms have an interesting duality in human health as commensals that provide beneficial short chain fatty acids and train the immune system, and as opportunistic pathogens in extraintestinal infection. A detailed understanding of their unique physiology can lead to the development of therapeutics to manipulate their metabolism in the gut or treat infection. Bacteroides have a prolific ability to degrade complex carbohydrates but the most widely utilized carbohydrates across species are alpha-glucans including dietary starch. My lab studies various aspects starch utilization by gut Bacteroides including the structure and function of cell surface enzymes and the outermembrane import machinery. The goal of our work is to build a comprehensive molecular understanding of how Bacteroides competitively scavenge alpha glucans.