Isolation of erythromycin resistance genes from the oral metagenome.

• Grant number: 09/00229-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2009
• End date: April 30, 2010
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Molecular Genetics and Genetics of Microorganisms
• Principal Investigator: Daniel Saito
• Grantee: Andressa Monteiro Venturini
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Odontologia de Piracicaba (FOP). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The increasing emergence of antibiotic resistant bacterial lineages highlights the necessity of contemporary research that could contribute in designing novel classes of antimicrobial agents. Metagenomics is the simultaneous and integrated analysis of microbial genomes in complex environments, providing unprecedented culture-independent detection of new biomolecules of agroindustrial, dental, and medical interest. In this reality, heterologous expression of genes derived from metagenomic libraries may constitute an important tool for the identification of unreported antibiotic resistance determinants.The present study aims to isolate, identify and characterize novel erythromycin resistance genes from dental biofilm by shotgun cloning of metagenomic DNA, DNA sequencing, sequence comparative analysis, and in silico protein structural and functional prediction.The results of this investigation may contribute to a better knowledge of erythromycin resistance genes, to the understanding of their main biological mechanisms, and to the development of specific strategies for eliminating resistant microorganisms.