2003 IRISH SCIENTIST YEAR BOOK

Home Page

Table of contents

Index by Author

Index by topics

Search


Institute of Technology Carlow
David Ryan, Yiping Wang & David Dowling
Chinese-Irish collaborative project in biotechnology at IT Carlow

The structure of EPSPS of P. putida P.P4G-1 derived from computer-based modelling at the Institute of Technology Carlow

Biotechnology offers a sustainable approach to many industrial and environmental applications of economic benefit to both China and Ireland. Microbial biodiversity (including genome sequences), particularly from extreme or polluted ecosystems, offers an opportunity to extract novel genes and proteins for industrial and environmental applications. China offers an extensive source of such biodiversity. In addition to providing new knowledge, such genes may have considerable economic application. Apart from direct industrial use, another area of interest is in environmental monitoring or diagnostics using existing technologies in novel ways to detect and enumerate microorganisms and/or specific genes by microarrays.

The laboratories in the Institute of Technology Carlow and the Department of Life Sciences, Peking University, have retrieved genes of interest from microorganisms isolated from extreme polluted environments such as glyphosate (a herbicide which is an active ingredient in some commercial products), heavy metal resistance and genes for degradation of chlorinated aromatics. These genes and their proteins may have useful biotechnological properties - especially if further modified or used to construct transgenic plants.

In a recent joint research project carried out in Carlow by Yicheng Sun from Peking University, a 3D model of a novel EPSPS (glyphosate tolerance enzyme) has been generated and the original microorganism further characterised. In addition, a genomic library of another microorganism isolated from a Chinese glyphosate manufacturing site has been constructed. Subsequent work by Robert Ryan has identified a novel solvent/metal tolerance system from this library. These examples illustrate the potential for prospecting or 'mining' microbial diversity to yield genes with useful industrial/environmental and agricultural applications.

The ongoing collaboration between Institute of Technology Carlow and Peking University will be further developed to promote joint research activities in the area of bioinformatics, microarrays and protein engineering, which will be used to isolate, characterise and evolve genes and oligonucleotides of interest to industry, environment and agriculture.

Contact: Dr David Dowling; Tel: 059 91 70487; E-mail: [email protected]