Annual Report of Activities CNC 2008 - Center for Neuroscience and ...

Area D | MicrobiologyCoordinator | Milton CostaGeneral ObjectivesThe Extreme Environment Group will gain a better understanding of the microbial diversity in geothermalareas, hypersaline environments and extremely alkaline springs. One of the primary objectives involvesthe study of mechanisms that confer radiation and desiccation resistance in species of the genusDeinococcus and Rubrobacter. We are also studying the population structure of Legionella species innatural environments to define clones that will cause colonization of man‐made fixtures and cause disease.Another line of research focuses on the characterization of the pathways for the synthesis of compatiblesolutes in hyperthermophiles. This lead us to examine the synthesis of the essential lipopolysaccharides inMycobacterium species.The Yeast Research Group is unraveling the resistance of Candida albicans to macrophages as well as theepidemiology of yeast infections in a local hospital.Main AchievementsThe Extreme Environments Group has described a large number of novel species, one of which we namedHaloplasma contractile isolated from a deep sea brine represents a completely new bacterial phylum.Among other organism described was the first anaerobic member of the archaeal family Halobacteriaceae.It is also the first non‐pigmented strain know.Our research has lead to the discovery a three new pathways for the synthesis of compatible solutes inthermophiles.57We have also discovered the function of the gene product of an essential gene in Mycobacterium spp. thatcould lead to the development of a very specific antibiotic. The structure of this enzyme was elucidatedand the structure of the active site described.He found that Legionella clones in natural environments are different from those in man‐made fixturesthat cause disease.The genome of extremely radiation resistant strain of Rubrobacter radiotolerans and a radiation‐sensitivestrain of Deinococcus radiomllies were completely sequenced and genes compared with other radiationresistant strains of Deinococcus and Rubrobacter. The genes and replicons of genes involved in DNArepair of the radiation‐sensitive strain are the same as in the radiation‐resistant Deinococcus strains,leading to the hypothesis that additional factors are involved in the resistance to radiation.The Yeast Research group has achieved the following: Yeast metabolic response to the presence ofbacterial endotoxin (one paper submitted); Combined effect of anti‐fungal cell wall inhibitors in A.infectoria: identification and cloning of the AiFKS gene and its regulator AiRHO; caspofunginsusceptibility (2 papers under preparation)