{"doi":"10.1128/spectrum.01669-21","title":"Biogeography of Bacterial Communities and Specialized Metabolism in Human Aerodigestive Tract Microbiomes","abstract":"Bacteria produce specialized metabolites to compete with other microbes. Though the biological activities of many specialized metabolites have been determined, our understanding of their ecology is limited, particularly within the human microbiome. As the aerodigestive tract (ADT) faces the external environment, bacteria colonizing this tract must compete both among themselves and with invading microbes, including human pathogens. We analyzed the genomes of ADT bacteria to identify biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) for specialized metabolites. We found that the majority of ADT BGCs are uncharacterized and the metabolites they encode are unknown. We mapped the distribution of BGCs across the ADT and determined that each site is associated with its own distinct bacterial community and BGCs. By further characterizing these BGCs, we will inform our understanding of ecology and biogeography across the ADT, and we may uncover new specialized metabolites, including antibiotics.","journal":"Microbiology Spectrum","year":2021,"id":193410,"datarank":0.49211681850069317,"base_score":2.4849066497880004,"endowment":2.4849066497880004,"self_citation_contribution":0.37273599746820013,"citation_network_contribution":0.11938082103249302,"self_endowment_contribution":0.37273599746820013,"citer_contribution":0.11938082103249302,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":11,"citer_count":5,"citers_with_citation_signal":4,"citers_with_endowment":4,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9525,"is_data_producer":true,"deposit_databanks":{"figshare":["10.6084/m9.figshare.14217326"]},"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":761806,"name":"Susan Zelasko","orcid":"0000-0001-7318-585X","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":226785,"name":"Nasia Safdar","orcid":"0000-0003-3946-0437","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":251451,"name":"Cameron R. Currie","orcid":"0000-0003-3104-3997","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":761805,"name":"Reed M. Stubbendieck","orcid":"0000-0003-1507-3272","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":134,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:49:51.300073Z","pmid":"34704787","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}