CBMA
Centro de Biologia Molecular e Ambiental
Centre of Molecular and Environmental Biology
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Pedro Castro | |
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Post-Doc Researcher | |
Innovation for Life - Functional Genomics and Nanobiotechnology for Sustainable Living | |
Microbial Functional Genomics | |
Pedro Santos | |
Universidade do Minho - Campus de Gualtar, Departamento de Biologia - 4710-057, Braga - P |
MSc in Molecular Genetics |
Optimization of Pseudomonas sp. M1 as a biocatalyst of myrcene and related plant-derived volatiles using Synthetic Biology: in collaboration with Prof. Víctor de Lorenzo (CNB-CSIC, Madrid) and funded by FCT. The research envisages the exploitation of the enzymatic repertoire of the soil isolate Pseudomonas sp. M1, focused on the ability to metabolize myrcene, a component of essential oils from a variety of plants that is widely used in industrial applications. Importantly, M1 strain is the only well described bacterium able to use myrcene as sole C-source, holding, therefore, great potential as a source of novel biomolecules (as a result of biotransformation by myrcene-specialized machinery) with enhanced biotechnologically-relevant properties. The project aims ultimately the establishment of Pseudomonas sp. M1 strain as a biological chassis for the design of M1 cell-factories à la carte for specialized biotransformation of plant-derived volatiles, by using a systems biology approach to generate the necessary knowledge to design a suitable Synthetic Biology strategy aiming to reduce non-essential genomic burden and optimize M1 as biocatalyst. |
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P. Soares-Castro, P. Montenegro-Silva, H. J. Heipieper and P. M. Santos. 2017. Functional characterization of a 28-kb catabolic island from Pseudomonas sp. M1 involved in biotransformation of ß-myrcene and related plant-derived volatiles. Appl Environ Microbiol. doi: 10.1128/AEM.03112-16 P. Soares-Castro and P. M. Santos. 2014. Deciphering the genome repertoire of Pseudomonas sp. M1 toward ß-myrcene biotransformation. Genome Biol Evol. 7(1):1-17. doi: 10.1093/gbe/evu254. |
Current project: PSEUDOCAT: Optimization of Pseudomonas sp. M1 as a biocatalyst of myrcene and related plant-derived volatiles using Synthetic Biology (SFRH/BD/76894/2011) Collaboration with other projects: CETSENTI (RECI/AAG-GLO/0470/2012) - Cetaceans as marine ecosystem health sentinels: from July 2013 up to now. Immunomics-Bcc (PTDC/BBB-BIO/1958/2012) - Exploitation of immunogenic proteins of the Burkholderia cepacia complex to design new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies: from April 2013 up to now. |
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Projects: BIOMYR (PTDC/EBB-BIO/104980/2008) - Towards the metabolic engineering of beta-myrcene pathway of Pseudomonas sp. M1: functional genomics and structural biochemistry approaches: from July 2010 to January 2012 MSc in Molecular Genetics from September 2009 to September 2011: |
Key Publications: P. Soares-Castro, P. Montenegro-Silva, H. J. Heipieper and P. M. Santos. 2017. Functional characterization of a 28-kb catabolic island from Pseudomonas sp. M1 involved in biotransformation of ß-myrcene and related plant-derived volatiles. Appl Environ Microbiol. doi: 10.1128/AEM.03112-16 P. Soares-Castro and P. M. Santos. 2014. Deciphering the genome repertoire of Pseudomonas sp. M1 toward ß-myrcene biotransformation. Genome Biol Evol. 7(1):1-17. doi: 10.1093/gbe/evu254. P. Soares-Castro and P. M. Santos. 2013. Towards the Description of the Genome Catalogue of Pseudomonas sp. Strain M1. Genome Announc. 1(1):pii:e00146-12. doi: 10.1128/genomeA.00146-12 Other Publications: F. Godoy-Vitorino, A. Rodriguez-Hilario, A. L. Alves, F. Gonçalves, B. Cabrera-Colon, C. S. Mesquita, P. Soares-Castro, M. Ferreira, A. Marçalo, J. Vingada, C. Eira, P. M. Santos. 2016. The microbiome of a striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) stranded in Portugal. Research in Microbiology. doi: 10.1016/j.resmic.2016.08.004; P. Soares-Castro, D. Marques, S. Demyanchuk, A. Faustino and P. M. Santos. 2011. Draft genome sequences of two Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates with different antibiotic susceptibilities. J Bacteriol. 193(19):5573. doi: 10.1128/JB.05446-11. |
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Mesquita CS, Soares-Castro P, Santos PM (2013). Pseudomonas aeruginosa: phenotypic flexibility and antimicrobial resistance. In Mendez-Vilas A, eds. Microbial pathogens and strategies for combating them: science, technology and education (Vol. 1, pp. 650-665). Formatex Research Center |
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Oral Communications: Soares-Castro P and Pedro M. Santos. (2015). Pseudomonas-based chassis towards à la carte biotransformation of plant-derived volatiles. XXXIX Portuguese Genetics Conference, University of Minho. Braga. Soares-Castro P and Santos PM. (2013). Towards the optimization of Pseudomonas sp. M1 as a biocatalyst using Synthetic Biology. DBIO Seminars. CBMA, Department of Biology of University of Minho. Braga Soares-Castro P and Santos PM. (2011). Towards the metabolic engineering of myrcene pathway of Pseudomonas sp. M1 using an integrated omic approach. Microbial Genetics and Ecology (BAGECO) 2011. Corfu. Soares-Castro P and Santos PM. (2010). Exploring the biotechnological potential of Pseudomonas sp. M1 using high-throughput sequencing technology. XVII Congresso Nacional de Bioquímica. Oporto.
Poster in conferences: Soares-Castro P and Santos PM. (2013). An integrated omics approach to set Pseudomonas sp. M1 as a multipurpose biotech tool towards plant-derived volatiles. Pseudomonas Conference 2013. Lausanne Mesquita CS, Soares-Castro P, Faustino A, Fialho A, Winstanley C and Santos PM. (2013). Phenotypic characterization and comparative genomics of two Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates. Pseudomonas Conference 2013. Lausanne Soares-Castro P and Santos PM. (2011). An integrated omic approach towards the metabolic engineering of myrcene pathway of Pseudomonas sp. M1. Microbiotec11. Braga (best poster award from the panel). Soares-Castro P, Marques D, Demyanchuk S, Faustino A and Santos PM. (2011). Comparative genomics of two Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates to elucidate the composition of their mobilomes. Microbiotec11. Braga. Soares-Castro P, Marques D, Demyanchuk S, Faustino A and Santos PM. (2011). Insights into the accessory genome of two Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates using comparative genomics. Microbial Genetics and Ecology (BAGECO) 2011. Corfu. |
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