Exploring the antibiotic-producing capabilities of Canadian High Arctic bacteria
Microbial communities in harsh environments such as the Canadian high Arctic, remain a relatively unexplored source of antimicrobial natural products. In this study, we developed a pipeline for screening and evaluating bacterial isolates cultured from 23 Canadian high Arctic soil, sediment, and active-layer permafrost samples to discover antibacterial compounds. The pipeline incorporated an…
In a study exploring the antibiotic-producing capabilities of Canadian high Arctic bacteria, researchers have developed a pipeline to screen and evaluate bacterial isolates from 23 samples, including soil, sediment, and active-layer permafrost. This pipeline, which involved undergraduate student involvement, generated a collection of over 350 bacterial isolates with preliminary antibacterial activity.
After dereplication, whole genome sequencing, and secondary screening via co-culture assays, five isolates were selected for further testing.
Among the bioactive crude extracts from these isolates, the Pseudomonas isolate exhibited the strongest activity against Staphylococcus aureus. This isolate was subjected to liquid chromatography bioactivity guided fractionation, leading to the identification of a potential bioactive compound named koreenceine A. This compound had previously only been isolated from a Pseudomonas species found in temperate soil and was associated with gene expression in other microbial communities.
The research further expanded the known antibiotic activity of koreenceine A by confirming that a kecBCD genetic knockout of the putative biosynthetic gene cluster significantly reduced the compound's antibacterial activity.
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