Recovering genomes of oil-degrading microbes in petroleum reservoirs through multi-omics data analysis

Abstract

This study aims at the development and improvement of skills related to the analysis of metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data from Brazilian oil samples using different bioinformatics tools. The project has two main goals: (i) to complement with new tools and methods the analysis of sequence data obtained through metagenomics and metatranscriptomics of crude oil and oil-enriched anaerobic microcosm samples in order to elucidate the most relevant metabolic processes and pathways in the reservoir environment, and (ii) to reconstruct genomes (in silico) from the large-scale sequencing data available, contributing with information on the processes involved in the oil degradation, as well as on the survival mechanisms of microorganisms in inhospitable conditions. For the accomplishment of both goals the data obtained from previous work using large-scale sequencing of DNA from crude oil samples and of DNA and RNA from active oil-degrading anaerobic microcosms will be used.