Bioorthogonal non-canonical amino acid tagging reveals translationally active subpopulations of the cystic fibrosis lung microbiota.

Culture-independent studies of cystic fibrosis lung microbiota have provided few mechanistic insights into the polymicrobial basis of disease. Deciphering the specific contributions of individual taxa to CF pathogenesis requires comprehensive understanding of their ecophysiology at the site of infection. We hypothesize that only a subset of CF microbiota are translationally active and that these activities vary between subjects.

Disruption of Cross-Feeding Inhibits Pathogen Growth in the Sputa of Patients with Cystic Fibrosis.

A critical limitation in the management of chronic polymicrobial infections is the lack of correlation between antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) and patient responses to therapy. Underlying this disconnect is our inability to accurately recapitulate the environment and complex polymicrobial communities However, emerging evidence suggests that, if modeled and tested accurately, interspecies relationships can be exploited by conventional antibiotics predicted to be ineffective by standard AST. As an example, under conditions where relies on cocolonizing organisms for nutrients (i.

A putative enoyl-CoA hydratase contributes to biofilm formation and the antibiotic tolerance of .

has attracted increasing attention as an emerging pathogen in patients with cystic fibrosis. Intrinsic resistance to several classes of antimicrobials and the ability to form robust biofilms in vivo contribute to the clinical manifestations of persistent infection. Still, much of biofilm formation remains uncharacterized due to the scarcity of existing genetic tools.