Identification of Plant-derived Bioactive Compounds For Their Potential As Alternatives to Conventional Antimicrobials

Objective 1: Develop protocols to isolate and identify bioactive compounds from agricultural products such as fruit peels and rinds. Objective 2: Investigate mode of action of bioactive compounds that are able to mitigate virulence in the gut (mouse model), or restrict environmental dissemination and survival of pathogens, utilizing metagenomic, transcriptomic and proteomic analyses. Sub-objective 2.1. Determine influence of bioactive compounds on pathogens during in vitro (i.e., biofilm formation, swarm motility, and survival in harsh environments such as low water activity and low pH) and ex vivo assays (i.e. invasion of cultured human intestinal cells). Sub-objective 2.2. Determine how bioactive compounds impact host microbiome and pathogens during infection in animal models by acquiring and interpreting genomic and transcriptomic data.