Document Type
Grant
Publication Date
9-1-2012
Department
Chemistry
Abstract
Antibiotics have been of great scientific and medical interest since the discovery of penicillin from a fungus. The research detailed below was done in order to determine similarities between genes of interest and to express them in order to determine their characteristics. Terpenoids are a class of compounds that have been shown in the past to exhibit antibiotic qualities such as is the case with terpentecin. First, bioinformatics was performed to determine similarities in genes that commonly encode for formation of terpenoids to those known to exist in the family Actinobacteriaceae. A BLAST analysis was done against the entire family with known proteins of interest. Corynebacteriaceae jumped out as a potential candidate with a vast number of hits as well as a diverse family. Further probing was done to determine what species within Corynebacteriaceae had sufficient genomic data as well as propensity to produce secondary metabolites of interest. Six species were found to be possible contenders, of which half were found to be pathogenic. Corneybacterium glutamicum(C. glutamicum) was found to be a worthy candidate due to its complete genome being sequenced as well as its production of terpenoids. The DNA of C. glutamicum was successfully extracted and purified. The genes of interest were then successfully amplified by PCR and confirmed by gel electrophoresis.
Content Notes
Final Report Form, Poster
Unique Identifier
gspstugrants_2013_Labeots_Joseph
First Advisor
Francis Mann
