Research Project Title: Utilizing Computational Methods within the Tiny Earth Pipeline to Fuel Antibiotic Discovery
PI Name: Dr. Marc Chevrette
University of Florida, Department of Microbiology and Cell Science
Duration of Project Affiliation: ~1 year
Research Focus
Through my project, I aim to further understand patterns in the Tiny Earth Chemistry Hub bacterial genomes that are indicative of unique secondary metabolites. These patterns are otherwise known as biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), which are groups of multiple genes that collectively encode for a certain secondary metabolite. BGCs are significant because they tell us about the biosynthesis and characterization of microbial natural products that – based on their properties – can be utilized as antibiotic drugs. Apart from this objective to investigate BGCs, there is also a gap in knowledge on the taxonomy of these bacterial isolates that I hope to address through my genomics-based project.
Project Responsibilities
The aforementioned objectives will be achieved by developing and executing various bioinformatics analyses and approaches, including running the genomes against the antiSMASH database to find BGCs for secondary metabolites of interest, as well as using the Genome Taxonomy Database (GTDB) to unearth taxonomic information. This past semester, I created a computer script to extract genome files and organize raw bacterial genomic data to prepare it for the aforementioned analyses; throughout the duration of this project, I will continue to refine the code and create new scripts as more genomic data is added and our needs change.