Bioprospecting from marine sediments of New Brunswick, Canada: exploring the relationship between total bacterial diversity and actinobacteria diversity.

Katherine Duncan,Bradley Haltli,Krista A Gill,Russell G Kerr

doi:10.3390/md12020899

Katherine Duncan, Bradley Haltli + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/md12020899

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Journal: Marine Drugs	Publication Date: Feb 13, 2014
Citations: 116	License type: CC BY 3.0

Affiliation: University of Prince Edward Island

Abstract

Actinomycetes are an important resource for the discovery of natural products with therapeutic properties. Bioprospecting for actinomycetes typically proceeds without a priori knowledge of the bacterial diversity present in sampled habitats. In this study, we endeavored to determine if overall bacterial diversity in marine sediments, as determined by 16S rDNA amplicon pyrosequencing, could be correlated with culturable actinomycete diversity, and thus serve as a powerful tool in guiding future bioprospecting efforts. Overall bacterial diversity was investigated in eight marine sediments from four sites in New Brunswick, Canada, resulting in over 44,000 high quality sequences (x = 5610 per sample). Analysis revealed all sites exhibited significant diversity (H’ = 5.4 to 6.7). Furthermore, statistical analysis of species level bacterial communities (D = 0.03) indicated community composition varied according to site and was strongly influenced by sediment physiochemical composition. In contrast, cultured actinomycetes (n = 466, 98.3% Streptomyces) were ubiquitously distributed among all sites and distribution was not influenced by sediment composition, suggesting that the biogeography of culturable actinomycetes does not correlate with overall bacterial diversity in the samples examined. These actinomycetes provide a resource for future secondary metabolite discovery, as exemplified by the antimicrobial activity observed from preliminary investigation.

Highlights

Bacteria belonging to the class Actinomycetales are the most prolific producers of bioactive secondary metabolites in the bacterial domain
More than from any other group of bacteria, actinomycete-derived secondary metabolites have had a profound impact on society, as many have been developed into effective disease treatments and account for over two-thirds of clinically relevant antibiotics [2]
While actinomycetes have been a rich source of drug candidates over the past 60 years, reduced emphasis of natural product screening in the pharmaceutical industry and the increased difficultly in discovering novel secondary metabolites from traditional sources, such as actinomycetes from accessible terrestrial habitats, has led to a dearth of new natural product drug approvals [4]

Summary

Introduction

Bacteria belonging to the class Actinomycetales are the most prolific producers of bioactive secondary metabolites in the bacterial domain. While actinomycetes have been a rich source of drug candidates over the past 60 years, reduced emphasis of natural product screening in the pharmaceutical industry and the increased difficultly in discovering novel secondary metabolites from traditional sources, such as actinomycetes from accessible terrestrial habitats, has led to a dearth of new natural product drug approvals [4]. The immensely diverse marine environment has proven to be a rich source of actinomycetes as well as novel secondary metabolites over the past decade, despite the exploration of only a small fraction of the world’s oceans [7,10,11,12,13]

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