Diversity and biotechnological potential of the mobilome present in the Tietê River Basin

• Grant number: 14/09692-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: March 01, 2015
• End date: July 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Microbiology - Applied Microbiology
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Welington Luiz de Araújo
• Grantee: Luiz Ricardo Olchanheski
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Tietê river runs 1150 km, from Serra do Mar, close to Salesópolis city, to Parana River, in the west side of the São Paulo State. In this way, the river passes through several preserved areas of Atlantic Forest and metropolitan regions, such as the city of São Paulo where the river receives a large amount of domestic sewage and industrial pollutants. Despite of its environmental and social significance, few studies have the objective to study the microbial community present in this historical river. One of the factors that confer resistance and evolutionary advantage of certain organisms is horizontal gene transfer, which causes organisms susceptible to certain environmental changes start to show resistance, keeping the diversity even in unfavorable conditions. Certain environmental characteristics trigger greater gene transfer; however, this kind of study has not been explored very especially with respect to environmental conditions. In addition, certain genes that may be horizontally transferred may have biotechnological interest, and knowledge of factors affecting transfer rates and synthesis become extremely important. Thus, the present project aims to: 1) Check the distribution of mobile elements (mainly plasmids) along the Tietê River ; 2) check if there are environmental factors that modulate the distribution of mobile elements ; 3) observe which genes are present on mobile elements and 4) check the biotechnological importance such genes. For this, the microbial diversity of the Tietê River is being evaluated by independent cultivation methods, allowing a broad characterization of diversity along the Tietê River. In addition, metagenomic libraries will be obtained and genetic information present in these libraries will evaluate the presence of mobilized sequences in regions with different levels of pollutants. Finally, plasmids present in the environment will be obtained using a plasmid trap, sequenced and the genes present will be characterized. (AU)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

OLCHANHESKI, Luiz Ricardo. Diversity and potential of the mobilome present along the Tietê river basin.. 2019. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB/SDI) São Paulo.