Actinobacteria, biogeography, drug discovery, omics, marine natural products

Two thirds of clinically used antibiotics are produced by the bacterial order, actinomycetes, thus they are fundamental to the fight against antimicrobial resistant infections. Genome sequencing of these biotechnologically relevant strains has revealed the considerable genetic potential of actinomycetes, as they contain a rich reservoir of biosynthetic gene clusters (the blueprint to produce many more specialized metabolites). Even the genomes of well-studied actinomycetes contain genes that encode many more metabolites with drug potential than we previously thought. These cryptic gene clusters provide an exciting opportunity for the discovery of novel antibiotics to combat antimicrobial resistance. This studentship will assess the effect of biogeography on the production of specialized metabolism metabolism. Understanding the effect of isolation location and environmental parameters which underpin the survival of marine actiomycetes is paramount for eliciting novel chemistry. These complex environmental relationships are are likely to underpin metabolite production. Yet despite global strain collections, these environmental mechanisms are poorly understood. 

Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Liquid Chromatography High Resolution Mass Spectrometry (LC-HRMS), Metabolomics.

• Charlop-Powers, Z. et al (2015) Global biogeographic sampling of bacterial secondary metabolism. Elife Jan 19;4:e05048
• Brinkhoff, T. et al (2012) Biogeography and phylogenetic diversity of a cluster of exclusively marine myxobacteria. ISME J. 6(6):1260-72.