Biodiversity of cyanobacteria and their bioactive compounds from under-explored Brazilian habitats

Research summary

Cyanobacteria are interesting ancient diverse organisms with a great future in biotechnology. In this project, we will investigate molecular and cultivable cyanobacterial biodiversity from diverse habitats in Brazil. We will isolate strains to form a biobank and utilize cyanobacterial strains to screen and identify new bioactive compounds, their biosynthetic genes and enzymes.

Description

The Brazil and Finland teams have complementary expertise and will join forces to reveal cyanobacterial, bioactive compound and biosynthetic gene diversity in several Brazilian extreme environments. The outcomes of the project will be taxonomically new cyanobacteria, information on the biodiversity of cyanobacteria from diverse environments, novel bioactive compounds for drug leads and cell reagents, new biosynthetic pathways and novel enzymes, database products of LC-MS fragmentation patters of the compounds, which can be used to exclude the known compounds and focus novelty in the future research. The biobank of cyanobacteria is a natural resource which could be utilized for the benefit of the country for years to come. One of the major ecosystem services provided by the cyanobacteria is the production of new bioactive compounds, drug leads for combatting serious human diseases.

Research info

Research title
Biodiversity of cyanobacteria and their bioactive compounds from under-explored Brazilian habitats

Research timeline
1.1.2014 - 1.12.2018

Keywords
bioactive compounds biodiversity biosynthetic enzymes and genes cyanobacteria

Region
Latin America

Countries
Brazil, Finland

Institution
University of Helsinki
Department of Food and Environmental Sciences
Helsinki, Finland

Funding instrument
Business Finland, Academy of Finland

Head of research
Kaarina Sivonen

Research team
Tania Shishido-Joutsen, Jouni Jokela

Partners
University of Sao Paolo

Contact information
Kaarina Sivonen
+358 2 941 59270
kaarina.sivonen@helsinki.fi

Record last updated
11.4.2017