Research Measure: Discovery
Funding Type: DAFF FIRM
Funding Year: 2008
Project Duration: 36 Months
Project Type: Project-Based
Total Grant-Aid: €323,383
Lead Partner: University College Cork
Project Summary:
The marine environment and marine sponges in particular, have been shown to be a rich source of novel bioactive compounds. Microbial symbionts in the sponge are thought to be the source of many of these bioactive compounds, but the majority of these microbes remain uncultured, making much of the microbial diversity inaccessible to traditional microbiology. Preliminary data has demonstrated the potential of sponge-derived bacteria to produce useful bioactives. This project will further investigate the bioactive potential of the sponge microbiota, using both culture-dependent and culture-independent, metagenomic approaches. Isolated bacteria and metagenomic libraries will be screened for activities against foodborne pathogens. Clones showing bioactivities will be fully characterised. This will result in the isolation of bioactive producing genes and products derived from a unique and untapped environmental niche with high potential for novelty.