Uncovering biosynthetic potential of soil bacteria in Antarctica
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| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Antarctica represents an extreme, pristine, and hardly accessible environment. Bacteria inhabiting Antarctic ecosystems developed a plethora of adaptation mechanisms, including the ability to produce secondary metabolites to fight competitors or sustain abiotic stresses. These metabolites represent a remarkable source of natural products for pharmaceutical use. Therefore, bioprospecting of endemic Antarctic bacteria may uncover novel natural products with potential to combat multidrug-resistant pathogens whose incidence is rapidly rising. Here, three isolation methods have been applied to recover pure cultures of novel bacteria from Antarctic soils; with focus on phyla known for their high biosynthetic potential. Isolation procedures based on activation of sporulation to select for spore-forming bacteria (Bacillota, Actinobacteriota), media supporting actinobacterial growth, or low-nutrient and soil-extract based media to obtain fastidious strains. Phylogenetic/genomic methods are applied to analyse the taxonomic novelty of isolates and their potential to produce novel secondary metabolites. A collection of 522, mostly slow growing isolates was established. Most of these strains (60%) belonged to the phyla Actinobacteriota and Bacillota, and predominantly represented novel species of the genera Streptomyces, Pillimelia, Pseudoarthrobacter, Arthrobacter, Nocardioides, Bacillus, and Paenibacillus. Along with these, Pseudomonadota represented the next most abundant phylum in the strain collection, including several new species and one new genus. Application of specific isolation methods and longer cultivation times recovered several heretofore unknown bacterial taxa, most of which are related to taxa well-known as producers of antimicrobial compounds and promising for further exploitation. |
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