Activity-Based Protein Profiling - Enabling Phenotyping of Host-Associated and Environmental Microbiomes

Host-associated and environmental microbiomes play central roles in human health, biogeochemical cycling, response to ecosystem change, and agriculture. Scientific approaches that can reveal the functional activities that contribute to observed phenotypes are needed in microbiome research. Broad characterization of the functional activity of microbes within microbiomes is currently hampered by approaches that rely on inference of function from metagenomes or indirect measurements. Activity-based protein profiling is uniquely positioned to overcome these challenges and reveal the protein-level mechanisms associated with microbiome phenotypes. In this review we describe the progress made to date using ABPP in gut microbiome, plant-microbe interaction, and soil microbiome research, and suggest how ABPP data can be coupled with advanced computational methods to enable phenotype prediction and bioengineering of microbiomes for applied purposes.