Objective
Although various molecular assets are available for constructing Pseudomonas strains with improved biodegradative properties, no effort has been made so far to design genetic tools for engineering stable bacterial consortia with predetermined activities. The controlled association of two or more strains is particularly desirable when the required transformations involve the sequential action of microbial specimens that have little tendency to remain together. Also, when the process could be improved by an increase in substrate availability, or when a microbiological activity produces ecotoxic effects that could be quenched by unrelated strains.
This Project will develop simple molecular tools for designing bacterial consortia with distinct composition and activites. The main instrument to this end will be the genetic docking of antibodies (single-chain antibodies and peptides selected from combinatorial libraries) on the cell surface of the strains of interest (predominantly Pseudomonads), targeted towards specific antigens (protein or LPS) presented by the bacterial partners. In this way, the individual cells involved will spontaneously adhere to each other, thereby avoiding the need of an external selective pressure for remaining stably associated.
The same immunogenetic tools will be instrumental to engineer in one or more members of the consortia an affinity for silicates that have been chemically modified for interacting directly with the desired substrates. Through this procedure, the cells of interest with be endowed with a strong adherence not only to their bacterial associates, but also to chemically active solid carriers. This will result in biomineral catalysts which combine the activities of various strains with the defined physico-chemical properties of the functional groups entered in the non-biological material to which cells become attached.
The practical utility of these molecular tools will be tested during the construction of simple bacterial consortia for biodegradation/biotransformation of BTEX mixtures, PCBs, Cl-benzenes, DNEG and Cl-salicylate. For this, the organization, evolution and activities of the corresponding engineered communities will be monitored through automated optical techniques under non-disruptive, real operation conditions.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins
- natural sciences chemical sciences catalysis
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
28049 MADRID
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.