Draft Genome Sequence of Mangrove-Derived Streptomyces sp. MUSC 125 with Antioxidant Potential.

Abstract

Microorganisms remain as one of the most important source of pharmaceutically important drugs (Berdy, 2005; Debbab et al., 2010; Waditee-Sirisattha et al., 2016). Among the bacteria domain, Streptomyces genus has received considerable attention by the Scientific community for its seemingly unmatched capability of producing useful bioactive metabolites. The Streptomyces genus was initially proposed by Waksman and Henrici (1943); as the largest genus of Actinobacteria, it is comprised of over 780 species with validly published names (http://www.bacterio.cict.fr/). These gram-positive bacteria have contributed remarkably in natural product discovery as they synthesize compounds with diverse chemical structures and biological activities such as anticancer, antibacterial, antioxidant, antifungal, and immunosuppresants activities (Berdy, 2005; Gallagher et al., 2010; Manivasagan et al., 2013; Ser et al., 2015a, 2016a). Over the years, drug screening programs have been focusing on identification of terrestrial microorganisms and investigation of their bioactive potential (Burg et al., 1979; Marcus et al., 1999). However, these efforts have resulted in rediscovery of the known bioactive compounds. Thus, researchers begun to venture into new and/or underexplored areas in the hope of discovering novel, potent bioactive metabolites. The mangrove ecosystem represents one of the world's most dynamic environments that produces commercial forest products, supports coastal fisheries and protects coastlines (Alongi, 2008). Factors such as fluctuations in salinity and tidal gradient are believed to be the driving force for metabolic adaptations, which could in turn lead to production of valuable metabolites. In fact, the growing interest in bioactive potentials of mangrove-derived Streptomyces has been demonstrated by the isolation of Streptomyces pluripotens (Lee et al., 2014a), S. fradiae (Prakash et al., 2015), S. cheonanensis (Mangamuri et al., 2016), and S. malaysiense (Ser et al., 2016b). For this study, Streptomyces sp. MUSC 125 was initially isolated from mangrove soil in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia (Lee et al., 2014b). As an attempt to explore the antioxidant capacity of MUSC 125, metal-chelating assay was performed and discovered its potential in quenching ferrous ions with activity ranging from 10.02 to 51.14% (unpublished data). Thus, the strain was selected for whole genome sequencing to obtain further understanding on its genomic potential.