Expert: Prasanth Subramani - 1/24/2007

Question
I am flattered that you asked if this is a Master's project! It is actually not required as part of my educational program. I am a student at a community college doing a special project for my own experience and enjoyment. I intend to major in Microbiology when I transfer to 4-year university and the subject is fascinating to me.
I have not tried to identify the organisms that I have grown (I thought it would be prudent to see if my project was possible first). Right now I am in the process of extracting the inhibiting organisms and I would like to do some research on the genes that are responsible for the inhibition, but information is either hard to come by, or I am looking in the wrong place. How would you suggest I go about this? Should I try to identify my organisms first?
Thank you for responding so quickly to my previous question even though you are not feeling well. I hope you get better soon.
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
I am doing a project in Biology that involves the isolation of actinomycetes from soil samples and testing their potential as antibiotics. So far the project has been very successful and I have isolated several organisms that inhibit the growth of different types bacteria. My question is whether it is possible to identify the gene sequence that causes the antibiotic properties, cut the gene, and insert it into another organism. I would like to take two organisms that inhibit the growth of two different types of bacteria and insert the gene of one into the other to engineer an organism that will inhibit both types of bacteria. I would just like to know if this is possible. Thank you.
-----Answer-----
Dear Christine,

Firstly, I would like to tell you that this is one of the better questions I have received in a while !

Secondly, I think the project you are working on is interesting ! it is actually basic microbiology but its a good area to work on....

moving on to your question...

it is very much possible to identify the gene/genes encoding for the antibiotic peptide from each of the actinomycetes species...also it is possible to clone each of these into a single microbial plasmid to make it inhibit different bacteria. (basic genetic engineering)

a combination of wet lab and bioinformatics techniques can help you do the above.


but then, youve not mentioned any thing about the microbes ure working on? Also is this a honours project or a masters project?

I can tell you a lot of details on this but then im now down with a fever and hence am not able to type long replies.

If you have more specific queries feel free to contact me and ill be glad to help !

best wishes,
~Prasanth  

Answer
hi again !

im not so sure as to wat a community college is...(in this part of the world ...guess that system is not in practise)

im happy to hear that you are doing this project out of your own interest ...

if you want to major in microbiology, you r on the right track ! (doing such a project will really help u in the long term)

your project is very feasible..you should make an attempt to find out what youve isolated and cultured.

there are a lot of techniques to find out which genes are doing wat by using a microarray chip. other techniques would be gene sequencing and computational gene analysis.

I asked you if this was your masters project as this is one of the conventional methods for drug discovery !

only when u identify ur organism will u be able to find out how novel ur work is and also if its been done by some one else some where else ...get it?

do write to me as to how ur work is progressing....ill be glad to help you with any queries you may have !

Cheers !
~Prasanth