New CCMAR members: Rodrigo Costa | - CCMAR -
 

New CCMAR members: Rodrigo Costa

 

His field of expertise is genomics of bacterial communities in soil and plant roots. Rodrigo has also taught Evolutionary Biology for one year at the University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). Then he obtained the doctoral degree in Carol-Wilhelmina Technische Universität zu Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany. During his stay in this German institution, he has deepened his knowledge about Ecology and Evolution of the bacterial genus Pseudomonas, having developed an independent method of cultivation for the analysis of diversity and function of these organisms in situ.

This method is based on the use of a global regulator from the synthesis of antibiotics in Pseudomonas, the gene gacA («global antibiotic and cyanide control»), as an alternative phylogenetic marker.
During his post-doc at the Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies (CEes Department of Microbial Ecology) at the Universitäit of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands, Rodrigo Costa has taught graduate and postgraduate subjects such as Diversity and Evolution, Genome Evolution and Research in Microbial Ecology. In Groningen, he had the opportunity to investigate the evolution of the gene cluster involved in the synthesis of the antibiotic pirrolnitrina by Gram-negative bacteria, and the cytotoxic potential and diversity of bacterial communities associated with marine and freshwater sponges.

At the moment, Rodrigo is interested in the role of the antibiotics production as adaptive attribute of microorganisms in 'microbial hot spots', i.e. environments in which microbial populations tend to reach high densities. At CCMAR he will use genomics and metagenomics research techniques on the diversity, function and evolution of microbial genes encoding products involved in the production of secondary metabolites in / on marine sponges and estuarine environments.