Award details

Burkholderia species in sugarcane: the relationship among antifungal production, intrinsic antimicrobial resistance, and pest biocontrol

Reference	BB/R022607/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Miguel Valvano
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Queen's University of Belfast
Department	Centre for Experimental Medicine
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	66,928
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	15/05/2018
End date	30/04/2019
Duration	12 months

Abstract

unavailable

Summary

The Burkholderiaceae comprises a family of environmental bacteria widespread around the planet, which reside in diverse environments and in association with plants, insects, animals, and humans and also display extraordinarily high multidrug, intrinsic antibiotic resistance. Intrinsic resistance means that these bacteria can tolerate large concentrations of many different classes of antibiotics. Burkholderia are very useful microorganisms for mankind. They can serve as agents for bioremediation, plant growth promotion, and pest biocontrol, but these beneficial properties remain virtually unexploitable because of fear of infection and antibiotic resistance. Indeed, some Burkholderia species are particularly dangerous to humans and domestic animals (e.g. melioidosis and glanders) and they are singled out as bioterrorism agents, while others (e.g. B. cenocepacia and B. multivorans) cause debilitating and often transmissible lung infections in cystic fibrosis patients. Burkholderia spp. is a main bacterium of the sugarcane cultivable bacterial community in Brazil, and can control fungal and infections by producing many different antifungal compounds. Research in our laboratories show that strains with high-level antimicrobial resistance and increased bacterial virulence in a widely used insect infection model (Galleria mellonella) display higher capacity to inhibit sugarcane pathogenic fungi. These observations suggest that antimicrobial resistance and antifungal production are interrelated. We hypothesise that antimicrobial resistance and antifungal compound production are coordinated to allow Burkholderia survival in the presence of a polymicrobial flora in the plants and also to defend and complete for nutrients against other organisms in the rhizosphere. Our proposal aims to exploit this idea to find new ways to maximise the beneficial properties of Burkholderia for use in the field (e.g. antifungal production) while reducing antimicrobial resistance in the clinic. We will combine molecular microbiology, genomics, and infection models in plants and insects to assess the hypothesis that antifungal production drives antimicrobial resistance by influencing the production of molecules that enhance bacterial cell envelope impermeability resulting in increased antibiotic resistance, which in turn increases bacterial virulence. We will also exploit these findings to develop novel ways to inhibit antimicrobial resistance and enhance pest biocontrol.

Impact Summary

This fundamental research proposal will result in novel and significant contributions to UK-Brazil science and UK-Brazil knowledge economy, which are summarised as follows: 1) The main path to impact therefore will be through publication of the research in peer-reviewed, open access journals. Publications will be complemented by the presentation of data at national and international scientific conferences, as well as a various fora involving dissemination of new strategies to curtail antimicrobial resistance, such as for example the NI-AMR consortium, which gathers multidisciplinary scientits, public health, government and business representatives. 2) Our proposal provides fundamental research that has relevance to the pharmaceutical industry (biopharmaceuticals, antibiotic resistance). The common theme in terms of public benefit arising from this research is the potential to lead to life-enhancing applications when antibiotic resistance becomes more widespread. This has the aim of promoting systematic studies to translate findings from this research into novel therapeutics. 3) This proposal will address the problem of enhancing the sugarcane crops yield by preventing fungal and pest infections/infestation through the enhancement of the biocontrol abilities of B. seminalis and at the same time exploiting this bacterium as a predator for a sugarcane borer insect 4) This project will contribute to the career development of a Research Technician appointed to the project by ensuring additional training and experience that will enhance future employability. Similar skills training will be made available to other participants in PhD, MSc and undergraduate positions. 5) The relevance of this research to the biopharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors will benefit public engagement to inform and educate the public about opportunities arising from a knowledge-based economy and to educate about science in general. We intend to take full advantage of available opportunities todo so through Queen's and USP outreach activities and the media. Furthermore, we will use available opportunities to disseminate information about published research success to the general media through the Press and Publicity Units at Queen's and USP. See Pathways to Impact for additional details.

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Crop Science, Microbiology, Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	Newton Fund - BBSRC-FAPESP Joint Pump-Priming Awards for AMR in Agriculture (NFBRAZILAMR) [2017]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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