Chemical epigenetic modulation of marine cyanobacteria

• Grant number: 12/00246-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: September 01, 2012
• End date: August 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Hosana Maria Debonsi
• Grantee: Rafael de Felício
• Supervisor: William H. Gerwick
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto (FCFRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 10/17178-9 - Marine natural products: isolation and identification of unknown metabolites from endophytic fungi and cyanobacteria through chemical epigenetic elicitation and dereplication via molecular networking, BP.DR

Abstract

Natural products continue to represent the most important source of new bioactive substances, highlighting the richness of the marine environment that remains virtually untapped. In this context, cyanobacteria can be pointed out as a class of microorganisms with great pharmaceutical potential metabolites seen presenting intriguing chemical structures and potent biological activities significantly. Currently, research on natural products have bumped into some problems like high rate of rediscovery of substances or even the low amount obtained, which restricts clinical trials and other studies. Recent genetic studies have shown that several fungi and bacteria have a biosynthetic potential greater than the amount of secondary metabolites already isolated from these microorganisms, and that there is a tendency not to express all biosynthetic routes under laboratory conditions. Thus, alternative strategies to induce the production of microbial natural products are needed, such as use of chemicals that act as epigenetic modulators. Since the paucity of studies linking cyanobacteria and epigenetic modulation, combined with earlier experiments (performed at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography (SIO) - San Diego, CA, USA) in which the species Phormidium sp. was the expression of one of its metabolites increased a thousandfold, Prof. Dr. Maria Hosanna Debonsi conducted his postdoctoral this topic in SIO and obtained important and interesting results. Thus, this PhD project proposes the continuation of experiments using elicitors epigenetic marine cyanobacteria in the SIO, which will complement the PhD project of the student Rafael de Felício, who now works with epigenetic modulation of marine endophytic fungi, and promote research with the establishment of microorganisms, marine cyanobacteria in this case, the group of Prof. Hosana and even in marine natural products chemistry in Brazil. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

YANG, JANE Y.; SANCHEZ, LAURA M.; RATH, CHRISTOPHER M.; LIU, XUETING; BOUDREAU, PAUL D.; BRUNS, NICOLE; GLUKHOV, EVGENIA; WODTKE, ANNE; DE FELICIO, RAFAEL; FENNER, AMANDA; et al. Molecular Networking as a Dereplication Strategy. Journal of Natural Products, v. 76, n. 9, p. 1686-1699, SEP 2013. (12/00246-7)