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

Future ResearchOrganization of conferences:Chair Programme Committee and Co‐chair Organizing Committee 3rd FEMS Congress of Microbiology,Goteborg, 28th June‐2nd July, 2009.Industry contract research:Ongoing contracts with the Sociedade das Águas de Luso, S.A. (Luso Mineral Water Company).Future PlansMicrobiology of Extreme Environments Group Our laboratory will participate in the first Portugueseexploration of the Atlantic sea‐floor at depths of 6000. The samples retrieved and others from the Red‐seadeeps and hot springs from the Azores will be used for isolation of organisms and metagenomic studies.We will evaluate the functional diversity of an alkaline groundwater environment by screening genomiclibraries of conserved genes involved in central metabolic processes. We aim to study the homeostasis ofcompatible solute (CS) pools in extremophiles through regulation of biosynthesis and catabolism since theregulation of catabolism/export is scarce. We will continue to study the pathways for recently identifiedCSs. Glucosyl‐glucosylglycerate for example, found in a thermophilic bacterium, was detected inmycobacteria and proposed to be a precursor of methylglucose polysaccharides. We will elucidate thebiosynthesis of the methylglucose polysaccharides from mycobacteria. After the identification of the genesinvolved we will obtain the structure of the corresponding enzymes, essential for probing the catalyticmechanism and design/development of specific inhibitors to act as anti‐mycobacterial drugs. We willprobe the importance of recombination events on speciation mechanisms within Legionella and thedistribution of virulence‐related genes as a driving force on the evolution of the pathogen L. pneumophila.We will additionally design of a universal, portable and unambiguous epidemiological tool capable ofcorrelating L. pneumophila population structure and virulence.58Medical Mycology – Yeast Research Group We will characterize the sensing mechanism by which yeastsare able to detect and respond to the presence of LPS, to study in vivo models of mixed infections and toassess yeast gene modulation by LPS. The in vivo and in vitro effect of purines in the interaction of C.albicans‐ macrophages will be studied, together with the molecular and pharmacological characterizationof purine receptor and transporters in C. albicans. The inefficiency of single therapeutic strategies toeradicate dematiaceous infections prompts us to study the sinergism between caspofungin and chitinsynthetase inhibitors and how this affects the A. infectoria‐host interaction.