PNNL

Abstract

Metabolites produced by the microbiome influence human, animal, and environmental health, but the diversity and functional roles of these compounds have only begun to be elucidated. Comprehensively, profiling, identifying, and quantifying these molecules are significant challenges, as it requires expertise in analytical methods, such as mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, skills that not many traditional microbiologists or microbial ecologists possess. This creates a gap between microbiome scientists that want to contextualize the role of microbial metabolites in systems biology, and the skills required to generate and interpret complex metabolomics datasets. To bridge this gap, microbiome scientists must engage analytical scientists to best understand the underlying chemical and physical principles of the data. Conversely, analytical scientists must engage with microbiome scientists to better understand the biological questions being asked with metabolomics data and to best communicate its intricacies. This scientific dialogue is most beneficial if it begins at a project’s inception and is maintained throughout the analysis steps. There is also a co-evolving need for cheminformatic information exchange to bridge the gap between the instrumental data and biological interpretation. Simple raw or minimally processed data dumps are insufficient for most microbiome scientists to interpret. Collaborative data translation must occur to ensure that biologists appropriately interpret the complex spectral information, which is often rife with misinterpretation and ambiguous annotation. This two-way engagement must occur at the level of basic scientists, group leaders, and institutional core centers that generate both the samples and the analytical data. Better communication across the chemistry/biology disciplines will further enable the understanding of the ‘dark matter’ within microbiomes that maintain healthy humans and healthy environments.