Abstract
Extremophilic microorganisms represent a unique source of novel natural products. Among them, cold adapted bacteria and particularly alpine microorganisms are still underexplored. Here, we describe the isolation and characterization of a novel Gram-positive, aerobic rod-shaped alpine bacterium (KRL4), isolated from sediments from the Karuola glacier in Tibet, China. Complete phenotypic analysis was performed revealing the great adaptability of the strain to a wide range of temperatures (5–40 °C), pHs (5.5–8.5), and salinities (0–15% w/v NaCl). Genome sequencing identified KRL4 as a member of the placeholder genus Exiguobacterium_A and annotation revealed that only half of the protein-encoding genes (1522 of 3079) could be assigned a putative function. An analysis of the secondary metabolite clusters revealed the presence of two uncharacterized phytoene synthase containing pathways and a novel siderophore pathway. Biological assays confirmed that the strain produces molecules with antioxidant and siderophore activities. Furthermore, intracellular extracts showed nematocidal activity towards C. elegans, suggesting that strain KRL4 is a source of anthelmintic compounds.
Highlights
Natural products (NPs) represent the richest source of novel molecular scaffolds and chemistry and they remain the best source of drugs and drug leads, but they have other applications [1,2,3]
Strain KRL4 was isolated from Karuola glacier sediments collected at 5200 m of altitude, after incubation on PYG medium at 4 ◦ C for 15 days
KRL4 was able to grow in M9 + glucose liquid medium in a temperature range of 5 to 40 ◦ C and pH of 5.5 to 8.5, with a temperature optimum of 30 ◦ C and a broad pH optimum between 6.5 and 7.5
Summary
Natural products (NPs) represent the richest source of novel molecular scaffolds and chemistry and they remain the best source of drugs and drug leads, but they have other applications [1,2,3]. Metabolic pathway engineering can produce natural product analogues [2,4]. The vast untapped ecological biodiversity of microbes holds great promise for the discovery of novel natural products, thereby improving the odds of finding novel drug leads. It is estimated that only 1% of the microbial community has been cultivated in laboratories, implying that the majority of microbial natural products remains hidden [5]. The exploration of these extreme environments have led to the discovery
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