A metagenomics view of the microbial communities of the Maya underworld and their potential for natural product discovery

Alejandra Prieto-Dávo, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Host: Susana Gaudêncio, UCIBIO NOVA

ZOOM link: https://ucibio.pt/l/GuestSeminars

ID da reunião: 865 7786 0516

Senha: 805165

Abstract: Pol Ac is a unique place in Yucatan dominated by coastal mangroves and directly connected to the biggest underground river in the world by a cenote (sinkhole) with a series of caves composed mainly of CaCO3. Difficulty to access this remote cenote and its deep caves has left their sediment environment widely unexplored. In an effort to study the microbial communities present in these sediments, their ecological role, and their potential for natural product discovery, sediment samples were obtained from three depths within the cenote caves (14m, 18m and 54m). Results on their diversity, potential ecological role, cultivability, and their potential for natural product discovery, will be presented.

Short CV: Alejandra Prieto-Dávo is an Oceanographer who has been studying marine microbes as a source of novel natural products for 15 yrs. She did her PhD at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at Bill Fenical and Paul Jensen's lab where she learned to use molecular biology tools to explore the biotechnological potential of these microbes. After two postdocs at Scripps with Eric Allen and at SDSU with Forest Rower she started her own lab in the National Autonomous University of Mexico in the School of Chemistry at the Sisal (Yucatan) Marine Station. Here she have been training students and postdocs for 11 years to use molecular biology and bioinformatics to explore the ecology and biotechnological potential of microbial communities in sediments from the coast of Yucatan and from the unique environment that this peninsula's geological history has formed: the underground aquifer.