Methods to predict the antimicrobial resistance: a bioinformatic approach

Terça-feira , 22 de Março 2016 - 14:30

Escola Superior de Biotecnologia

Rua de Diogo Botelho 1327
PortoPorto4169-005
Portugal
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Seminário dia 22 de março às 14h30

 

No dia 22 de março, das 14h30 às 15h30, na sala 0.2, terá lugar uma apresentação pelo Doutor Felipe Lira, biólogo pela Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. Todos estão convidados.

As many antibiotics exist as many mechanisms of resistance will rise. Antibiotic  resistance is a worldwide problem and deserves all sort of attention and dedication to  identify the critical points which might promote or facilitate the emergence of novel  resistance genes in one community, as well the propagation of the already known genes.  The increasing of antimicrobial resistant organisms, mediated by the transference of  genes vertically or horizontally and by spontaneous mutations represent a risk for human health. Frequently, bacteria suffer injuries from antibiotics, biocides and heavy metals, in clinical and environmental environments, which exert a selective pressure over these  organisms interfering at the abundance and composition of environmental communities. This pressure of antimicrobials compounds leads to evolutionary and ecological  consequences that are not fully understood were highlighted in our studies.

Comprehensive analysis of the effects leaded by antibiotics and biocides at the smallest genetic elements, as genes, passing through the organized arrangement of the genome and finishing in the complex group forming the  metagenome. To this, wet lab techniques and bioinformatics approaches were applied to  elucidate the main questions as: (a) Infective and environmental strains  of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia constitute two different phylogenetic branches?; (b)  May triclosan exerts influence at the selection of antibiotic resistance genes  and genetic mobile elements involved in the antimicrobial resistance in sludge from Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTP); (c) How does the presence of triclosan affects the  taxonomic composition of an environmental microbiota?

The answers found were: (a) Independently on the origin,  clinical and environmental strains of S. maltophilia present similar genomic composition; there is not an "infective" S. maltophilia lineage; (b) Triclosan alters the number of antibiotic resistance genes present in a microbiota in a concentration dependent way; (c) Triclosan affects the composition of the microbiota collected from a WWTP.  Altogether, these results serve to understand the multi level procedure that  operates for selecting antibiotic resistance and propose different complimentary approaches to study this problem.