Meeting Abstract

P2-249  Sunday, Jan. 5  Deep-sea Coral Reefs: Genomic Contributions to Bioprospecting in the Marine Environment SZUCH, CM*; KEPHART, ML; SEVIGNY, JL; SIMPSON, S; CASSAVAUGH, CM; THOMAS, WK; COOK, GM; New England College; University of New Hampshire; University of New Hampshire; University of New Hampshire; New England College; University of New Hampshire; New England College cszuch1_ug@nec.edu

The rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) poses a serious threat to the health and safety of humanity on a global scale. The overall objective of this project strives to contribute to mitigating the public health risk presented by ARB through the application of novel genomic and proteomic techniques that aim to discover natural therapeutic agents in the marine environment. Accordingly, we generated a draft genome assembly of the deep-sea coral Lophelia pertusa in an attempt to (1) identify the origin of cationic antimicrobial peptides that have been successfully harvested from this stony coral and (2) confirm, complete, and correct their de novo sequences. Additionally, this draft genome assembly is–to our knowledge– the first of its kind, thus providing the scientific community with a new resource for investigating this framework-builder of deep-sea coral ecosystems.