Metagenomic as a tool to access chemical diversity from ecotone zones between Atlantic Forest and Cerrado

• Grant number: 14/22877-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: May 01, 2015
• End date: April 30, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Mônica Tallarico Pupo
• Grantee: Ulysses Amancio de Frias
• Supervisor: Sean F. Brady
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto (FCFRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Rockefeller University, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 12/16139-5 - Search of microbial natural products using metagenomics, BP.DD

Abstract

Atlantic Forest and Cerrado are two high biodiversity biomes in Brazil and represent unexplored and potential microbial sources. In order to understand life-style aspects of the microbiome in these soils, samples will be collected in an ecotone zone between these biomes in Vassununga State Park (Brazil) and the metagenomes will be obtained through isolation of environmental DNA. The amplicons for polyketides and non-ribossomal peptide domains will be obtained by a PCR using degenerated primers and the metagenome sequence will be sequenced by 454-NGS. The data will be processed using several bioinformatics tools to select the promising samples. Using spreading of metagenomic libraries, the selected samples will be arrayed and the promising clones will be submitted to isolation of the chemical compounds originally produced by these soil microbiomes. (AU)