A PhD position is available in the Laboratory of Molecular Mechanisms of Biological Adaptation at the Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA).

Study of the role of queousine nucleoside precursors in resistance to extreme conditions of microbial communities

The thesis project will consist of the study of the function of the queuosine (Q) nucleoside precursors as signaling molecules involved in the stability and resistance to extreme conditions of microbial communities. In our research group we have discovered that the modification of tRNA by Q is a molecular mechanism involved in the regulation of resistance, biofilm formation and virulence in most bacterial species (Díaz-Rullo and González-Pastor, NAR 2023). We have also proposed that Q precursors, produced by some bacterial species, would function as signaling molecules involved in the control of the aforementioned biological processes in other species within the communities. In this thesis project, this hypothesis will be tested experimentally using synthetic communities of Q precursor-producing and non-producing bacteria. In addition, functional metagenomics will be used to search for inhibitors of Q biosynthesis to explore their involvement in microbial communities and their potential applications in biotechnology as antibiofilm and antimicrobial compounds. This research will be funded by the EU HORIZON projects: “BlueTools” (2022-2026) and “EXTREM” (2024-2028), and the National Plan project “METACIRCLE” (2022-2025).

The call for this predoctoral contract will be published on the website of the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (www.inta.es) at the end of July 2024.

Contact: Eduardo González-Pastor