A researcher’s network from twelve countries –Spain among them- has recently presented the sequence of hen’s genome in the journal Nature. It is the first genome of a bird which has been decoded and it is 60% identical to human genome. The decoding of this gene, just like the decoding of fly’s genome, has aroused a great social interest. The beginnings of genomics as we know it now date back to several years ago and started with the publication of complete bacterial genomes. 90% of present genomics is bacterial and most protocols derive from it.
Scientists of more than twenty Spanish teams met in Valencia in February of 2004 to articulate a real collaboration network between the different research groups on bacterial genomics working in our country. The first conference was held last October in Granada. In the core of this conference, researchers like José Muñoz Dorado, of the Department of Microbiology of the University of Granada, are developing their research works.
The research group supervised by Muñoz Dorado has been going deeply into myxobacterias molecular biology for years. At present, they are working on the noting down stage of bacteria Myxococcus xanthus´s genome, promoted by Monsanto, a company devoted to do research on genetically improved seeds with the support of the US TIGR (The Institute for Genomic Research) and other 23 European and American research groups.
This last stage is essential, as it allows us “to know beforehand the potential of the genome”.
Antibiotic production
In short, with the work of the scientists of the University of Granada, we will get to know beforehand the potential of the bacteria. Researchers are very interested in Myxococcus xanthus, as it produces a series of different secondary metabolites, such as antibiotics.
In general, myxobacterias are important from the basic point of view for having an unique development cycle between procariot organisms. “They have a multicellular behaviour which makes them similar to fungus, with high communication between cells by chemical signs”, points out Professor Muñoz Dorado.
Reference: Prof José Muñoz Dorado
Dpt. Microbiology. Phone numbers. 958 243183 – 243246.
E-mail. jdorado@ugr.es
