Biotechnological potential of Actinobacteria from Canadian and Azorean volcanic caves.
Caves are regarded as extreme habitats with appropriate conditions for the development of Actinobacteria. In comparison with other habitats, caves have not yet been the target of intensive screening for bioactive secondary metabolites produced by actinomycetes. As a primary screening strategy, we conducted a metagenomic analysis of the diversity and richness of a key gene required for non-ribosomal peptide (NRP) biosynthesis, focusing on cave-derived sediments from two Canadian caves (a lava tube and a limestone cave) to help us predict whether different types of caves may harbor drug-producing actinobacteria. Using degenerate PCR primers targeting adenylation domains (AD), a conserved domain in the core gene in NRP biosynthesis, a number of amplicons were obtained that mapped back to biomedically relevant NRP gene cluster families. This result guided our culture-dependent sampling strategy of actinomycete isolation from the volcanic caves of Canada (British Columbia) and Portugal (Azores) and subsequent characterization of their antibacterial and enzymatic activities. Multiple enzymatic and antimicrobial activities were identified from bacterial of the Arthrobacter and Streptomyces genera demonstrating that actinomycetes from volcanic caves are promising sources of antibacterial, antibiofilm compounds and industrially relevant enzymes.
Food Science and Health Group (CITA-A), Departamento de Ciências Agrárias, Universidade dos Açores, Angra do Heroísmo, Açores, Portugal.
Cristina
C
Riquelme
Food Science and Health Group (CITA-A), Departamento de Ciências Agrárias, Universidade dos Açores, Angra do Heroísmo, Açores, Portugal.
Maria de Lurdes
ML
Enes Dapkevicius
Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IRNAS-CSIC), Sevilla, Spain.
Ana Z
AZ
Miller
Laboratory of Genetically Encoded Small Molecules, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA.
Zachary
Z
Charlop-Powers
Laboratory of Genetically Encoded Small Molecules, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA.
Sean
S
Brady
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC, Canada.
Cohord
C
Mason
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC, Canada. ncheeptham@tru.ca.
Naowarat
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1913-4151
N
Cheeptham
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000378:metabolism; D001173:Arthrobacter / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D001394:Azores; D001688:Biological Products / Q000378:metabolism*; D001955:British Columbia; D059552:Caves / Q000382:microbiology*; D019295:Computational Biology; D004798:Enzymes / Q000032:analysis; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D056186:Metagenomics; D046908:Peptide Biosynthesis, Nucleic Acid-Independent / Q000235:genetics*; D064210:Secondary Metabolism; D013302:Streptomyces / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001688:Biological Products; D004798:Enzymes
Actinobacteria; Antimicrobial activity; Caves; Enzymatic activity; Metagenomics