Identification and characterization of gene functions involved in synergistic interactions in a pollutant degrading multi-species bacterial consortium.

This project aims at determining functions at the genetic level which are important in the interactions between different bacterial members of a multispecies bacterial consortium (MBC) degrading synergistically the phenylurea herbicide linuron. The consortium consists of three bacterialstrains belonging  to three different species. Both the synergistic metabolic and physical interactions have been well-described previously. The project starts with the full-sequencing of the genomes of the three consortium members and their annotation. The identification of the inter-species signaling gene functions will be addressed by two approaches that both involve the growth of the consortium as a biofilm in continuous flow chambers. A first approach will be a differential transcription analysis of the member bacteria when grown as a consortium compared to individual biofilm growth, based on deep RNA sequencing. A second approach will involve the use of in vivo expression technology (IVET).IVET is a promoter-trapping technique that selects microbial promoters active in a specific niche which will be in this case the 3-membered consortium grown as a biofilm. The role of the identified inter-species signaling gene functions will be assessed by analyzing the effect of knocking out those genes on synergistic interactions in the MBC.
 
 

Keywords:IVET, Biofilm, Consortium, Deep RNA sequencing, Interspecies signaling

Disciplines:Sustainable and environmental engineering, Biomaterials engineering, Biological system engineering, Biomechanical engineering, Other (bio)medical engineering, Environmental engineering and biotechnology, Industrial biotechnology, Other biotechnology, bio-engineering and biosystem engineering

Project type:PhD project