DMS/NIGMS 1: Bacterial dispersal and nutrient transport on fungal highways

About This Grant

The dispersal of bacteria across a substrate underlies their ability to invade and carry harmful molecules to new environments. This depends critically on physical and chemical conditions of that environment, greatly modifying the bacteria’s behavior and impact to that substrate. In environments where fungi and bacteria live together, including the built environment and in/on our own bodies, fungal hyphae can facilitate bacterial dispersal and external transport of molecules. The long-term objectives of this research are to understand the mechanisms of bacterial dispersal and predict the transport of molecules along fungal hyphae through model building and refinement. This project will build initial models of bacterial (Lysinibacillus and Klebsiella) dispersal on fungal hyphae (Fusarium) through three specific aims: Aim 1 will quantitatively characterize the movement of bacteria over a short time scale in laboratory microcosms. The results will provide first-principle understanding of bacterial dispersal on fungal hyphae, laying the groundwork for more complex models. Aim 2 will predict how bacteria migrate and disperse along the hyphae over an expanded time scale across nutrient gradients and soil microcosms. The predictive models built from this aim is expected to better reflect bacterial migration in more complex, real-world environments. Aim 3 will test the mechanisms of bacterial movement on molecule (e.g. nutrients, harmful compounds) co-transport, using dyes and quantum dot particles as tracking sources. The results can help bring new concepts and implications of molecule co-transport through bacterial movement on fungal hyphae. This project has the potential to advance knowledge of bacterial dispersal using fungal hyphae across substrates and the functional outcomes of such dispersal. A mechanistic understanding of the properties that influence bacterial dispersal on hyphae can potentially uncover pathways of bacterial dispersal across different substrates including human skin, mucosal membranes, and across the surfaces of our ubiquitous built environment. RELEVANCE (See instructions): Bacteria and fungi co-exist in many environments in and around us. Potentially harmful bacteria can use fungi to move across our living spaces or across our own tissues and disperse harmful molecules. The findings from this project can help strategize ways to potentially reduce the movement of pathogens and toxic molecules of relevance to public health.