MICROBIOLOGY AND MOLECULAR MICROBIOLOGY

 

Detection of microorganisms in different matrices (food, water, soil, stool, bivalves, etc)

• Culture-dependent techniques

• Culture-independent techniques

• Molecular detection and quantification (PCR, qPCR, etc)

• Molecular identification of microorganisms (16S rRNA bacteria and archaea, ITS, etc) 

• Pathogens (Salmonella spp., STEC, etc) 

 

Microbiological Quality Control Techniques

• Culture-dependent techniques

• Total coliform

• Other indicators

 

Bacteria Susceptibility testing 

• Microdilution broth testing: minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of compounds (e.g. antibiotics, metals, xenobiotics, different materials, etc)

• Disk diffusion testing

• E-test 

 

Molecular characterization of prokaryotes (Bacteria and Archaea)

• PFGE

• rep-PCR (BOX-PCR, REP-PCR, ERIC-PCR)

• Detection of antibiotic resistance genes 

• Detection of mobile genes (integrons, etc)

• Detection of mutations 

 

 Bioprospection of secondary metabolites

• Bioactivity testing/detection

• Genome mining 

• Isolation and identification and molecular characterization (antimicrobial peptides, enzymes, other)

• Small scale culture optimization (culture media manipulations; temperature, etc)

 

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY TOOLS

• Molecular breeding of bacteria and Archaea. 

• Cloning

• Gene knock-out

• Mutagenesis (random and site directed)

• Gene expression (RT qPCR)

• Gene detection and quantification (PCR/ qPCR)

• In silico genome analysis

 

STANDARD TOXICOLOGICAL TESTING

• COMET assay

• AMES Test

• Chromosomal aberration 

• Micronuclei

• Citoxicity (cell lines)

 

OMICS  

tools are employed to provide insights on organism´s genome structure and expression under specific growth conditions.

 

• Transcriptomics 

• Genomics

• Metagenomics

• Proteomics (in colllaboration with Prof. Hugo Osório, I3S, UP)

• Lipidomics (in colllaboration with Prof. Rosário Domingues, Chemistry Dep. UA)

• Metabolomics (in colllaboration with Prof. Sílvia Rocha, Chemistry Dep. UA)

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