EXPLOITING GENOMICS TO UNDERSTAND MICROBIAL ADAPTATION AND RESISTANCE TO INDUSTRIAL PRESERVATIVES

防止工业产品和工艺的微生物污染是工业生物技术的一个主要领域。在产品中添加防腐剂和清洁剂，以确保无菌、稳定的保质期，并降低消费者感染的潜在风险。制造业是抗菌剂的最大用户之一，然而，随着监管的变化和全球减少环境影响的需求，该行业正在转向更环保，最小化的配方。某些细菌对抗菌剂的敏感性降低，并且在暴露于防腐剂时也可能进化出更大的抗性。假单胞菌属、伯克霍尔德菌属、克雷伯氏菌属、肠杆菌属和不动杆菌属等细菌可能在消费品生产过程中持续存在，导致工厂关闭或产品召回。了解耐药性的基础和预期的适应性对于工业开发新的产品防腐策略非常重要。这个博士将与联合利华研究和开发，阳光港，研究细菌如何适应克服工业使用的防腐策略。细菌全基因组测序（WGS）和全局基因表达（通过RNA测序的转录组学）的最新基因组方法将用于绘制抗菌素耐药性基因、代谢途径和突变，这些基因、代谢途径和突变是细菌（如假单胞菌属、伯克霍尔德菌属、克雷伯氏菌属、肠杆菌属和不动杆菌属）耐防腐剂的基础。该项目将：（i）建立每个细菌工业污染物物种的定制基因组数据库，以使其能够准确识别和分析;（ii）系统地绘制每个物种中与防腐剂抗性相关的抗性基因、代谢途径和突变特征;（iii）通过分析已暴露于现有或新型防腐剂制剂的细菌菌株来检查适应防腐剂抗性的遗传基础。该项目将提供分子微生物学，工业微生物学，生物信息学和大数据集统计分析的跨学科培训。与工业合作伙伴的实习将促进工业生物技术应用方面的培训，以及家庭和个人护理行业背后的商业战略。

Preventing microbial contamination of industrial products and processes is a major area of industrialbiotechnology. Preservatives and detergents are added to products to ensure sterility, stable shelf-life, and reduce potential risk of infection to consumers. The manufacturing industry is one of the largest users of antimicrobial agents, however, with regulatory changes and a global need to reduce environmental impact, the sector is moving towards greener, minimal formulations. Certain bacteria show reduced susceptibility to antimicrobial agents and may also evolve greater resistance upon exposure to preservatives. Bacteria such as Pseudomonas, Burkholderia, Klebsiella, Enterobacter and Acinetobacter bacteria may persist during manufacture of consumer products causing disruptive plant closure or products recalls. Understanding the basis for resistance and anticipating adaptation are important for industry to develop novel product preservation strategies.This PhD will work with Unilever Research and Development, Port Sunlight, to examine how bacteria adapt to overcome preservative strategies used by industry. State-of-the-art genomic approaches of bacterial whole genome sequencing (WGS) and global gene expression (transcriptomics via RNA-sequencing) will be used to map antimicrobial resistance genes, metabolic pathways and mutations that underpin preservative resistance in bacteria such as Pseudomonas, Burkholderia, Klebsiella, Enterobacter and Acinetobacter. The project will: (i) build custom genomic databases of each bacterial industrial contaminant species to enable their accurate identification and analysis; (ii) systematically map the resistance genes, metabolic pathways, and mutational signatures relevant to preservative resistance in each species; (iii) examine the genetic basis for adaptation to preservative resistance by analysis of bacteria strains which have been exposed to existing or novel preservative formulations. The project will provide an interdisciplinary training in molecular microbiology, industrial microbiology, bioinformatics and statistical analysis of big datasets. Placements with the industrial partner willfacilitate training in the applied aspects of industrial biotechnology, and the business strategies behind the home and personal care industry.