Integrated multi-omics analysis of Klebsiella pneumoniae revealed the discrepancy in flavonoid effect against strain growth between Rutin and Luteolin

The emergence of drug resistant pathogenic bacteria is increasingly challenging conventional antibiotics. Plant derived flavonoids are always considered as potential alternatives to antibiotics due to their antimicrobial properties. However, the molecular mechanisms by which flavonoids inhibit pathogenic microorganisms' growth are not fully understood. In order to better understand flavonoids' inhibitory mechanism, we used two flavonoids to incubate Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC700603 cells. After incubation for 4 hours, both the metabolomic and transcriptomic analysis were performed. The homogenous and differential effects of two flavonoids were compared. In total, 5,483 genes and 882 metabolites were measured. After filtering out the differentially expressed genes and metabolites, major pathways were enriched. The correlation between differentially expressed genes and metabolites were studied. The top 10 correlated DEGs and DEMs were identified in each comparative groups. Our results provided an explanation for the disparate effects of two flavonoids and demonstrated that the inhibitory mechanism of Rutin could be due to the changes in 4 pathways.