Integrated assessment of South African watershed bacterial communities critical to human health and welfare Development project
Komarnytsky, Slavko

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The overall objective of the envisaged long term collaborative program between NCSU and UP will be to develop a better understanding of the overall bacterial diversity in watersheds and impoundments of South Africa, and to determine what impact it may have on the health of water users. As this is a broad research goal that will require the input of various research disciplines, it was decided that the initial proposal would focus on characterization of the bacterial diversity on aquatic plants, with special emphasis on E. coli, and determination of the impact they may have on human health. Specifically, we will isolate E. coli and other bacteria associated with aquatic plants in the watersheds of South Africa and identify these isolates based on partial rpoS and uidA sequencing (Aim 1, UP). These strains will be made available to the Plants for Human Health Institute, where we will further investigate these cultures for their growth kinetics, mobility, biofilm formation, and adhesion parameters critical to human health. The bioactive metabolites produced by the isolates will be further investigated in the pairwise phenotypical screening platform using mammalian cell culture to understand their pharmacological and/or pathological effects on human health in the area of metabolic disease and inflammation (Aim 2, NCSU). An interdisciplinary partnership “Center for Sustainable Health and Biodiversity (CSHB)” will be created to coordinate the future research efforts and funding applications (Aim 3, shared).

Region(s)/Country(s):
  South Africa
Dates:
  07/01/2012 - 06/30/2019
Institutional Partner(s):
  University of Pretoria (UP), South Africa


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