Thesis supervisor: Gábor Rákhely
co-supervisor: Tamás Kovács
Location of studies (in Hungarian): USZ, Department of Biotechnology Abbreviation of location of studies: SzTE
Description of the research topic:
Bacteriophages (phages) are able to infect bacteria. Some of them, including certain filamentous phages, do not kill the host bacterium, but there are phages specifically killing the target microbe. The temperate phages have lysogenic and lytic life cycles. The lytic bacteriophages are excellent candidates as antimicrobial agents in plant protection, food industry or hygiene, since they can specifically eliminate pathogen bacteria without any environmental impact.
Xanthomonas arboricola pv. juglandis, a Gram-negative bacterium, causes walnut blight disease. The bacteria attack leaves, nuts, buds, and young twigs. Bacterial leaf blight, caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae is a prevalent and destructive rice disease that causes annual yield losses up to 50% to 80% in severely infected fields. The diseases can be controlled using copper and/or antibiotics, but they have a serious environmental impact, which, together with the emergence of resistance, have inspired a search for other solutions.
In the project, phages capable of infecting/killing plant pathogen microbes, such as Xanthomonas arboricola pv. juglandis and Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae are isolated, then characterized by standard and genomic methods. Lytic phages will be selected and their morphologies, host specificities will be determined, and detailed comparative genomic analyses will be performed. Phage cocktails are prepared for agricultural applications. The usage of phages/phage cocktails will be optimized. The host-phages interaction and the possible formation of phage resistance will also be studied, and adapted phages will be produced by co-evolutionary experiments.
Number of students who can be accepted: 1
Deadline for application: 2021-12-31
2024. IV. 17. ODT ülés Az ODT következő ülésére 2024. június 14-én, pénteken 10.00 órakor kerül sor a Semmelweis Egyetem Szenátusi termében (Bp. Üllői út 26. I. emelet).
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