Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Microorganisms play a profound role in defining our surrounding environment. Their activities impact our health, water, air, and crops. The ability of a microorganism to evolve rapidly and acquire new biological functions (e.g. antibiotic resistance) from other organisms, strongly influences its interaction with its environment (e.g. our bodies). A plasmid is a cellular component that can carry biological information between microorganisms and facilitate rapid evolution through the spread of new functions. Studies of organisms grown in the laboratory indicate that the functions that plasmids spread not only affect the recipient cell but also the surrounding environment. Unfortunately the vast majority of microorganisms present in nature can not be grown in a laboratory setting, thus limiting our understanding of plasmid-mediated evolution. In order to effectively research this important subject one must collect samples directly from the environment of interest. We hypothesize that in naturally occurring microbial populations, plasmids should play a significant and detectable role in microbial-environmental interactions. To test this hypothesis, I will obtain plasmids directly from well-characterized environments to understand their functions and effects on these interactions. It is anticipated that the results of this project will provide greater insight into similar microbial mechanisms taking place within the environment of the human body, and the human population at large.