Antimicrobial Potential of Microorganisms Isolated from the Bottom Sediments of Lake Baikal

Abstract

Extremophilic microorganisms attract researchers by their unique characteristics, primarily antagonistic ones, acquired in the process of survival in extreme natural conditions. The antimicrobial potential of the metabolites of these microorganisms is quite broad, from the food industry to therapeutic drugs. Microbial mats of Lake Baikal are a source of unique and diverse microorganisms. The study aimed to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of bacterial strains isolated from the bottom sediments of the lake. Using heterotrophic growth conditions, seven bacterial strains were isolated from samples collected in several coastal zones of Lake Baikal. Thisstudy identified both widespread strains of the genera Pseudomonas and Bacillus and rare genera Micrococcus and Acinetobacterrepresentatives. Metabolites of five strains were found to have a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity. Four large fractions of metabolites of the isolated strains wereidentified. Two peptides of the isolated fractions of metabolites (one is produced by microorganisms of all five isolated strains, another—only by Pseudomonas putida) are low molecular weight oligopeptides. These peptides were proved to be bacteriocins.

Antarctic Sphingomonas sp. So64.6b showed evolutive divergence within its genus, including new biosynthetic gene clusters

“…Bacteria from extreme environments (extremophiles) have recently been recommended for its predicted untapped variety of antimicrobial compounds, representing another focus of research for new antibiotics (Danilovich et al, 2018;Babich et al, 2021). Accordingly, extremophile proteobacteria have also been described to produce a great variety of specialized metabolites (Puri, 2019).…”

Editorial for Special Issue “Alternatives to Antibiotics: Bacteriocins and Antimicrobial Peptides”

“…On the topic of novel AMPs, Babich and collaborators [ 8 ] remind us once again about the enormous diversity of naturally occurring antimicrobial agents and the unusual places where me might find them, by exploring the antimicrobial properties of microorganisms isolated from the bottom sediments of Lake Baikal, located in the mountainous area of Siberia, Russia, north of the border with Mongolia, and considered to be one of the deepest lakes in the world. They isolate various strains of the genera Pseudomonas and Bacillus, as well as some members of the rare genera Micrococcus and Acinetobacter.…”