Construction of Riboswitches for Screening Antibacterial Agents from Forest Plants

Abstract

Forest plants contain abundant natural products, providing a valuable resource for obtaining compounds with various functional activities, such as antimicrobial, lipid-lowering, and immunoregulatory activities. The development of efficient tools for rapidly screening functional natural products from forest plants is essential for human health. In this study, we constructed some transgenic strains (Escherichia coli) containing Ahy1-1 riboswitches that respond to cyclic di-guanylate (c-di-GMP), serving as a novel bacteriostatic target. The Ahy1-1 riboswitches contained the LacZ gene (encoding β-galactosidase) and c-di-GMP aptamer in order to monitor β-galactosidase activity due to changes in c-di-GMP. After co-incubating with extracts from fresh orange peel, fresh tea leaves, and Fuzhuan brick tea, the orange peel exhibited a significant inhibition of c-di-GMP generation. The extract of tea leaves had a minor influence on the synthesis of c-di-GMP, whereas Fuzhuan brick tea, which is fermented by various microorganisms, inhibited the production of c-di-GMP. Our constructed transgenic strains could be used to screen for antibacterial agents from forest plants. Beyond antibacterial agents, other functional compounds from forest plants could be selected by designing diverse riboswitches.