MATRIX-GNPS accelerated microbial biodiscovery

• Grant number: 19/09350-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: August 20, 2019
• End date: August 19, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Organic Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo José Pena Ferreira
• Grantee: Marcelo Marucci Pereira Tangerina
• Supervisor: Robert John Capon
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Queensland, Brisbane (UQ), Australia
• Associated to the scholarship: 17/16606-6 - Actinomycetes from Brazilian islands: a metabolomic approach in bioprospecting natural products with antitumor potential, BP.PD

Abstract

Environmental conditions drive adaptations in microbial secondary metabolism, which encodes a plethora of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). Genomic discoveries reveals most of BCGs are silent (inactive) and keep an incredible chemical diversity yet to be explored. With the rising of antibiotic resistance, the need for new drug leads is as urgent as ever. This project aims to utilize modern cultivation conditions to transcriptionally activate silent BCGs in order to elicit production of novel metabolites by rare actinomycetes strains. For this purpose it will be utilized a combination of a miniaturised high-throughput microbial cultivation approach (MATRIX) and molecular networking (GNPS), along with antimicrobial evaluation against antibiotic resistant strains and cytotoxicity assays. After selection of the most promising strains and cultivation parameters, large scale fermentations and extracts fractionation and isolation of compounds will be performed. This approach utilizes a fast and cost-effective methodology towards novel and bioactive compounds.