Bonnie Whatmough

Bonnie Whatmough

Profile

I graduated from the University of Plymouth with a BSc in Applied Biomedical Sciences in 2023. As part of my undergraduate degree, I completed a year-long placement at Exeter Blood Sciences laboratory (an NHS trust), gaining my professional registration as a Biomedical Scientist. My dissertation research project was entitled “Antibiotic activity of sediment bacteria isolated from a Roman bath and hot spring in Bath, England”. This project contributed to one of the first large scale assessments of the environment in terms of antimicrobial potential. It also piqued my interest in natural product discovery and our response to antimicrobial resistance in a wider sense. As a result, I chose to re-direct my career goals away from a clinical setting and towards a more research-based setting, ultimately leading me to undertaking a PhD.

Bonnie Whatmough

PhD title: “Identifying the antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes that shape a microbiome”

The Acromyrmex echinatior leaf-cutter ant will be used as an experimentally tractable model with which to study microbiomes. A. echniatior ants host a protective microbiome on their cuticle which is largely dominated by a single vertically transmitted strain of Pseudonocardia. Pseudonocardia produce antibiotic compounds active against the mycoparasite Escovopsis that, if left unchecked, parasitises the fungal cultivar of the ants (Leucoagaricus gongylophorus) and causes colony collapse. This project aims to (a) identify the antibiotics produced by Pseudonocardia, (b) assess their activity against a range of bacteria and (c) determine their mode of action. Additionally, the antibiotic resistance genes encoded by horizontally transmitted Streptomyces will be identified to determine how they resist the effects of Pseudonocardia antibiotics and persist in this highly selective environment. The network of interactions occurring on the ant cuticle contribute to the retention of ‘useful’ (disease-preventing) bacteria and the elimination of ‘useless’ bacteria.