The main objective of my study is to detect the presence of virulence associated genes, characterization of tcpA variants, and to study the role of SXT and integrons in conferring drug resistance in environmental isolates of V.cholerae.

My work proposes to identify and isolate novel promoters/ expression systems from psychrophilic bacteria. One of the major drawbacks of recombinant protein expression in bacteria esp. mesophilic , is the inability of the protein to reach its native conformation. Sometimes the protein itself could be toxic to the host, retarding its production and purification. It is at this juncture that low temperature expression systems and cold-inducible promoters come to forefront. These microbes are also a source of myriad enzymes that are cold inducible and hence have lots of industrial applications.

Cold-adapted bacteria have successfully evolved features genotypic and/ phenotypic, to surmount the negative effects of low temperatures and to enable growth in these extreme environments. They also deserve special attention as they contain cold adapted enzymes that have so many advantages in the field of industry and biotechnology. Though several studies have been conducted on the molecular basis of cold adaptation and their enzymes of psychrophiles, owing to their huge diversity innumerable number of cold adaptive mechanisms would have evolved which is really unexplored. Also, very little information is known about the biodiversity and bioprospecting potential of the bacteria inhabiting the unique cold environments. In this context, the main objective of my study is to screen for novel cold adapted genes and psychrophilic enzymes and its molecular characterization from the bacteria isolated from the Arctic.

We are interested in Vibrio biofilm inhibition and potential biofilm inhibitors will be screened from mangrove Actinomycetes and its molecular mechanism of action will be explored. By exploring the mechanism of these bioactive compounds, more can be known about the bacterial behavior and could be used as alternative to currently used therapeutic agents as they do not provoke bacterial resistance but reduce pathogenic traits of bacteria.