NEW APPROACHES FOR BACTERIA DETECTION AND TYPING: FROM BIOINFORMATICS TO DNA-BASED METHODS

Efficient monitoring of bacteria in environmental samples is crucial for modern societies. The early detection of disease-causing human pathogens, the tracking of benefic or phytopathogenic bacteria in agricultural soils and monitoring the quality of bathing and drinking waters, constitute only a few examples of vital areas that require time-efficient procedures to detect and identify specific bacterial species.
DNA-based detection and identification methods depend mainly on two factors: the selection of taxa-specific DNA markers (DNA regions present only in a taxonomic group and absent from all others) and the application of cost-efficient DNA-based detection techniques. The increasing number of available bacterial nucleotide sequences in databases, together with the development of efficient bioinformatics tools able to analyze and compare those sequences, are priceless resources for reliable and fast selection of high quality DNA markers.
In this seminar I will present some of the work carried out in the MDE group concerning new in silico methodologies for the selection of taxa-specific DNA markers and their application in the development of detection/identification assays targeting phytopathogenic or symbiotic bacteria in environmental samples.

Pedro Albuquerque received his PhD in Biology from the University of Porto in 2012. Previously he worked as a Research Fellow and PhD student at IBMC (Porto) and is currently a Research Fellow at CIBI-InBIO in the MDE group. His research focuses on the development of new methodologies for the detection and identification of bacteria using cost- and time-efficient detection and identification methods.

Image credits: Pedro Albuquerque