Dr Emmanuelle Crost

Researcher

Glycobiology of host-microbe interactions in the gut

View Nathalie Juge's group

Biography

I am currently working on the core project entitled “The role of mucus in the cross-talk between gut bacteria and the host”.

I am more especially working on mucin degradation/utilisation by Ruminococcus gnavus, a prominent symbiont of the human gut. We are building up a small collection of R. gnavus strains, all isolated from human faecal samples, and we previously showed that the utilisation of mucins by R. gnavus is strain-dependent. An intramolecular trans-sialidase that plays a role in mucin degradation has been identified in R. gnavus ATCC 29149 and is being characterised in our group.

The goals of this part of the project are: – to understand the differences between the R. gnavus strains by growth assays, genome comparison, transcriptome comparison and enzyme comparison. – to identify and characterise more mucin-degrading enzymes in R. gnavus. – to assess the importance of mucin-degradation in the ability of R. gnavus to colonise and compete in the gut. I am more especially carrying out the growth assays, the genomic/transcriptomic analyses and the in vivo work (personal licence obtained in March 2014).

Key Publications

Crost, E.H., Tailford, L.E., Le Gall, G., Henrissat, B., Fons, M. & Juge, N. (2013) Utilization of host glycans by the human gut symbiont Ruminococcus gnavus is strain dependent. PLOS ONE, 8(10):e76341.

Tailford, L.E., Owen, C.D., Walshaw, J., Crost, E.H., Hardy-Goddard, J., Le Gall, G., de Vos, W.M., Taylor, G.L. & Juge, N. (2015) Discovery of intramolecular trans-sialidases in human gut microbiota suggests novel mechanisms of mucosal adaptation. Nat. Commun., 6:7624.

Crost, E.H., Tailford, L.E., Monestier, M., Swarbreck, D., Henrissat, B., Crossman, L.C. & Juge, N. (2016) The mucin-degradation strategy of Ruminococcus gnavus: The importance of intramolecular trans-sialidases. Gut Microbes, 7(4):302-312.

Wegmann U., Nueno Palop C., Mayer M. J., Crost, E. & Narbad, A. (2017) Complete Genome Sequence of Desulfovibrio piger FI11049, Genome Announcements, 2017 vol. 5 no. 7 e01528-16 Review

Tailford, L.E.*, Crost, E.H.*, Kavanaugh, D* & Juge, N. (2015) Mucin glycan foraging in the human gut microbiome. Front. Genet., 6:81.* Co- first authors

McGrath CJ, Laveckis E, Bell A, Crost E, Juge N, Schüller . (2022)

Development of a novel human intestinal model to elucidate the effect of anaerobic commensals on Escherichia coli infection.

Disease models & mechanisms

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Gold Lock

Wu H, Crost EH, Owen CD, van Bakel W, Martínez Gascueña A, Latousakis D, Hicks T, Walpole S, Urbanowicz PA, Ndeh D, Monaco S, Sánchez Salom L, Griffiths R, Reynolds RS, Colvile A, Spencer DIR, Walsh M, Angulo J, Juge N. (2021)

The human gut symbiont Ruminococcus gnavus shows specificity to blood group A antigen during mucin glycan foraging: Implication for niche colonisation in the gastrointestinal tract.

PLoS biology

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Gold Lock

Wu H., Rebello O., Crost E., Owen D., Walpole S., Bennati-Granier C., Ndeh D., Monaco S., Hicks T., Colvile A., Urbanowicz P. A., Walsh M., Angulo J., Spencer D. I. R., Juge N.. (2020)

Fucosidases from the human gut symbiont Ruminococcus gnavus.

Cellular & Molecular Life Sciences

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Gold Lock

Bell A., Brunt J., Crost E., Vaux L., Nepravishta R., Owen C. D., Latousakis D., Xiao A., Li W., Chen X., Walsh M. A., Claesen J., Angulo J., Thomas G. H., Juge N.. (2019)

Elucidation of a sialic acid metabolism pathway in mucus-foraging Ruminococcus gnavus unravels mechanisms of bacterial adaptation to the gut.

Nature microbiology, 4, 2393-2404

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Mukhopadhya I., Morais S., Laverde-Gomez J., Sheridan P. O., Walker A. W., Kelly W., Klieve A. V., Ouwerkerk D., Duncan S. H., Louis P., Koropatkin N., Cockburn D., Kibler R., Cooper P. J., Sandoval C., Crost E., Juge N., Bayer E. A., Flint H. J.. (2018)

Sporulation capability and amylosome conservation among diverse human colonic and rumen isolates of the keystone starch-degrader Ruminococcus bromii.

Environmental Microbiology

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Gold Lock

Laverde Gomez J. A., Mukhopadhya I., Duncan S. H., Louis P., Shaw S., Collie-Duguid E., Crost E., Juge N., Flint H. J.. (2018)

Formate cross-feeding and cooperative metabolic interactions revealed by transcriptomics in co-cultures of acetogenic and amylolytic human colonic bacteria.

Environmental Microbiology

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Gold Lock

Crost E. H., Le Gall G., Laverde-Gomez J., Mukhopadhya I., Flint H., Juge N.. (2018)

Mechanistic Insights Into the Cross-Feeding of Ruminococcus gnavus and Ruminococcus bromii on Host and Dietary Carbohydrates.

Frontiers in microbiology, 9, 2558