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Anti-Candida properties of urauchimycins from actinobacteria associated with trachymyrmex ants.

ABSTRACT: After decades of intensive searching for antimicrobial compounds derived from actinobacteria, the frequency of isolation of new molecules has decreased. To cope with this concern, studies have focused on the exploitation of actinobacteria from unexplored environments and actinobacteria symbionts of plants and animals. In this study, twenty-four actinobacteria strains isolated from workers of Trachymyrmex ants were evaluated for antifungal activity towards a variety of Candida species. Results revealed that seven strains inhibited the tested Candida species. Streptomyces sp. TD025 presented potent and broad spectrum of inhibition of Candida and was selected for the isolation of bioactive molecules. From liquid shake culture of this bacterium, we isolated the rare antimycin urauchimycins A and B. For the first time, these molecules were evaluated for antifungal activity against medically important Candida species. Both antimycins showed antifungal activity, especially urauchimycin B. This compound inhibited the growth of all Candida species tested, with minimum inhibitory concentration values equivalent to the antifungal nystatin. Our results concur with the predictions that the attine ant-microbe symbiosis may be a source of bioactive metabolites for biotechnology and medical applications.

SUBMITTER: Mendes TD

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3613088 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Anti-Candida properties of urauchimycins from actinobacteria associated with trachymyrmex ants.

Mendes Thais D TD Borges Warley S WS Rodrigues Andre A Solomon Scott E SE Vieira Paulo C PC Duarte Marta C T MC Pagnocca Fernando C FC

BioMed research international 20130318

After decades of intensive searching for antimicrobial compounds derived from actinobacteria, the frequency of isolation of new molecules has decreased. To cope with this concern, studies have focused on the exploitation of actinobacteria from unexplored environments and actinobacteria symbionts of plants and animals. In this study, twenty-four actinobacteria strains isolated from workers of Trachymyrmex ants were evaluated for antifungal activity towards a variety of Candida species. Results re ...[more]

PMID: 23586060

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Project description:BackgroundCooperative benefits of mutualistic interactions are affected by genetic variation among the interacting partners, which may have consequences for interaction-specificities across guilds of sympatric species with similar mutualistic life histories. The gardens of fungus-growing (attine) ants produce carbohydrate active enzymes that degrade plant material collected by the ants and offer them food in exchange. The spectrum of these enzyme activities is an important symbiont service to the host but may vary among cultivar genotypes. The sympatric occurrence of several Trachymyrmex and Sericomyrmex higher attine ants in Gamboa, Panama provided the opportunity to do a quantitative study of species-level interaction-specificity.ResultsWe genotyped the ants for Cytochrome Oxidase and their Leucoagaricus fungal cultivars for ITS rDNA. Combined with activity measurements for 12 carbohydrate active enzymes, these data allowed us to test whether garden enzyme activity was affected by fungal strain, farming ants or combinations of the two. We detected two cryptic ant species, raising ant species number from four to six, and we show that the 38 sampled colonies reared a total of seven fungal haplotypes that were different enough to represent separate Leucoagaricus species. The Sericomyrmex species and one of the Trachymyrmex species reared the same fungal cultivar in all sampled colonies, but the remaining four Trachymyrmex species largely shared the other cultivars. Fungal enzyme activity spectra were significantly affected by both cultivar species and farming ant species, and more so for certain ant-cultivar combinations than others. However, relative changes in activity of single enzymes only depended on cultivar genotype and not on the ant species farming a cultivar.ConclusionsAnt cultivar symbiont-specificity varied from almost full symbiont sharing to one-to-one specialization, suggesting that trade-offs between enzyme activity spectra and life-history traits such as desiccation tolerance, disease susceptibility and temperature sensitivity may apply in some combinations but not in others. We hypothesize that this may be related to ecological specialization in general, but this awaits further testing. Our finding of both cryptic ant species and extensive cultivar diversity underlines the importance of identifying all species-level variation before embarking on estimates of interaction specificity.

Project description:Stone surface is a unique biological niche that may host a rich microbial diversity. The exploration of the biodiversity of the stone microbiome represents a major challenge and an opportunity to characterize new strains equipped with valuable biological activity. Here, we explored the diversity and adaptation strategies of total bacterial communities associated with Roman stone ruins in Tunisia by considering the effects of geo-climatic regions and stone geochemistry. Environmental 16S rRNA gene amplicon was performed on DNA extracted from stones samples collected in three different sampling sites in Tunisia, along an almost 400km aridity transect, encompassing Mediterranean, semiarid and arid climates. The library was sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq sequencing platform. The cultivable Actinobacteria were isolated from stones samples using the dilution plate technique. A total of 71 strains were isolated and identified based on 16S rRNA gene sequences. Cultivable actinobacteria were further investigated to evaluate the adaptative strategies adopted to survive in/on stones. Amplicon sequencing showed that stone ruins bacterial communities were consistently dominated by Cyanobacteria, followed by Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria along the aridity gradient. However, the relative abundance of the bacterial community components changed according to the geo-climatic origin. Stone geochemistry, particularly the availability of magnesium, chromium, and copper, also influenced the bacterial communities' diversity. Cultivable actinobacteria were further investigated to evaluate the adaptative strategies adopted to survive in/on stones. All the cultivated bacteria belonged to the Actinobacteria class, and the most abundant genera were Streptomyces, Kocuria and Arthrobacter. They were able to tolerate high temperatures (up to 45°C) and salt accumulation, and they produced enzymes involved in nutrients' solubilization, such as phosphatase, amylase, protease, chitinase, and cellulase. Actinobacteria members also had an important role in the co-occurrence interactions among bacteria, favoring the community interactome and stabilization. Our findings provide new insights into actinobacteria's diversity, adaptation, and role within the microbiome associated with stone ruins.

Project description:Elicitation through abiotic stress, including chemical elicitors like heavy metals, is a new technique for drug discovery. In this research, the effect of heavy metals on actinobacteria Streptomyces sp. SH-1312 for secondary metabolite production, with strong pharmacological activity, along with pharmacokinetics profile, was firstly investigated. The optimum metal stress conditions consisted of actinobacteria strain Streptomyces sp. SH-1312 with addition of mix metals (Co2+ + Zn2+) ions at 0.5 mM in Gause's medium. Under these conditions, the stress metabolite anhydromevalonolactone (MVL) was produced, which was absent in the normal culture of strain and other metals combinations. Furthermore, the stress metabolite was also evaluated for its anti-oxidant and cytotoxic activities. The compound exhibited remarkable anti-oxidant activities, recording the IC50 value of 19.65 ± 5.7 µg/mL in DPPH, IC50 of 15.49 ± 4.8 against NO free radicals, the IC50 value of 19.65 ± 5.22 µg/mL against scavenging ability, and IC50 value of 19.38 ± 7.11 µg/mL for iron chelation capacity and the cytotoxic activities against PC3 cell lines were recorded with IC50 values of 35.81 ± 4.2 µg/mL after 24 h, 23.29 ± 3.8 µg/mL at 48 h, and 16.25 ± 6.5 µg/mL after 72 h. Further mechanistic studies have revealed that the compound MVL has shown its pharmacological efficacy by upregulation of P53 and BAX while downregulation of BCL-2 expression, indicating that MVL is following apoptosis in varying degrees. To better understand the pharmacological properties of MVL, in this work, the absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) were also evaluated. During ADMET predictions, MVL has displayed a safer profile in case of hepatotoxicity, cytochrome inhibition and also displayed as non-cardiotoxic. The compound MVL showed good binding energy in the molecular docking studies, and the results revealed that MVL bind in the active region of the target protein of P53 and BAX. This work triumphantly announced a prodigious effect of heavy metals on actinobacteria with fringe benefits as a key tool of MVL production with a strong pharmacological and pharmacokinetic profile.

Dataset Information

Anti-Candida properties of urauchimycins from actinobacteria associated with trachymyrmex ants.

Publications

Anti-Candida properties of urauchimycins from actinobacteria associated with trachymyrmex ants.

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