Final Activity Report Summary - TRAMWAYS (Transfer of Knowledge in Microbial Signal Transduction Pathways and Metagenomics)
The Signal Transduction cluster at UCC has established a new zebrafish facility including a zebrafish housing breeding facility which is now being used to study the pathogenicity of important opportunistic human pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This will allow the high throughput screening of novel genes that are postulated to be important for host interaction in this opportunistic pathogen, and in other pathogens being studies such as Candida albicans, Acinetobacter baumannii, Listeria monocytogenes, Clostridium difficile and Photorhabdus asymbiotics.
In addition a novel metagenomic cloning and heterologous expression system has been developed. This system enables the construction of a metagenomic library in an E. coli fosmid which can then subsequently be conjugated to Pseudomonas putida and Streptomyces lividans hosts, where the fosmid integrates onto the host chromosome. Thus the ability to use three expression hosts will significantly increase the proportion of the metagenome that can be effectively screened. This system is currently being optimised for use in the Marine Biotechnology area for the isolation and subsequent identification of genes encoding enzymes which are involved in the biosynthesis of compounds with potential novel bioactive properties.
In addition a novel metagenomic cloning and heterologous expression system has been developed. This system enables the construction of a metagenomic library in an E. coli fosmid which can then subsequently be conjugated to Pseudomonas putida and Streptomyces lividans hosts, where the fosmid integrates onto the host chromosome. Thus the ability to use three expression hosts will significantly increase the proportion of the metagenome that can be effectively screened. This system is currently being optimised for use in the Marine Biotechnology area for the isolation and subsequent identification of genes encoding enzymes which are involved in the biosynthesis of compounds with potential novel bioactive properties.