Nadja E Solis-Marcano
University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, Puerto Rico
Title: Electrochemical Protocol for polyketide synthase multienzyme (pks) genomic Island Identification
Biography
Biography: Nadja E Solis-Marcano
Abstract
Colibactin is a genotoxin produced by the polyketide synthase multienzyme (pks genomic island) encountered in the human gut microbiota. Many studies link colibactin production to different kinds of cancers, therefore making it a molecule of interest in the biomedical research field. More specifically, certain strains of Escherichia coli have been found to harbor pks genomic island that induced DNA damage. Here, we developed a PCR mediated-electrochemical protocol to successfully identify the presence of the pks genomic island in DNA samples. For this, pks and non-pks containing E. coli DNA were impedimetrically analyzed before and after amplification through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) protocol. Custom DNA primers were synthesized in order to selectively amplify a specific 400 base pair sequence from the clbN gene from the pks island. Impedance data showed a 97% increase in charge transfer resistance after the protocol was applied for the pks containing samples as opposed to the 15% increase for the non-pks containing DNA samples. Overall, effective identification of the pks genomic island was achieved.