Core Members
Filipa Soares
PhD student
I am a Ph.D. student in the Doctoral Program in Molecular and Environmental Biology at University of Minho, under the scope of the funded project VALEU (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030488). I have completed my degree in Biochemistry and my M.Sc. in Applied Biochemistry.
My main research interest is to adapt Pseudomonas sp. M1 to the terpene β-myrcene as carbon source and understand the genomic and phenotypic alterations that led to the bacterial adaptation. Moreover, knowing the adaptation mechanism to this carbon source may provide hints regarding the processes associated with the catabolism of β-myrcene and other terpenes. For this purpose, bacterial adaptation in specific and controlled conditions is essential, coupled with the use of bioinformatics tools to find mutations associated with this adaptation and their impact on the bacterial phenotype.
Additionally, to understand such a process, resorting to genetic engineering will be useful for identifying the adaptive mutations and for the expression and purification of specific enzymes known as related to the β-myrcene catabolism.
Projects
- Evolution of biotechnologically-relevant genomic islands
- VALEU. Towards the valorization of eucalyptus waste using Pseudomonas-based biocatalysts
Publications
Soares F, Soares-Castro P and Santos PM (2019). Genomic-guided evaluation of long-term adaptation of Pseudomonas sp. M1 in the presence of terpenes.
Soares-Castro P, Soares F, Reis F, Lino-Neto T and Santos PM (2019). Bioprospection for novel functional modules towards plant monoterpene valorization.
Soares-Castro P, Soares F and Santos PM (2021). Current advances in the bacterial toolbox for the biotechnological production of monoterpene-based aroma compounds. Molecules, 26(1): 91. doi: 10.3390/molecules26010091.
