Origins of a tangled bank: Adaptation and evolution in antibiotic-producing Streptomyces
Supervisors:
Arianne Babina, School of Infection and Immunity, University of Glasgow
Summary:
This project aims to elucidate how antibiotic-producing Streptomyces species adapt during industrial strain improvement and to assess the nature of the early mutational changes that shape the performance of the strain and antibiotic yield. Integrating experimental evolution, molecular genetics, and genomics, we will investigate adaptive processes that shape Streptomyces genomes, with the goal of improving industrial antibiotic production and enabling discovery of novel compounds. Initial studies will focus on the model strain Streptomyces coelicolor to characterise the early adaptation of strains to new culture conditions. The insights gained will then be applied to an industrial Streptomyces lineage to inform and accelerate strain improvement strategies.
This work will advance our understanding of adaptive evolution, the industrial strain development process, and the genetic basis of antibiotic biosynthesis, ultimately contributing to faster drug discovery pipelines. The project offers extensive interdisciplinary training, equipping the candidate with expertise in microbiology, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, and bioinformatics, alongside transferable skills suited to both academic and industrial research careers.