Insilico and Invitro Analyses Reveal Promising Antimicrobial Peptides from Myxobacteria

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global concern, and as soon as new antibiotics are introduced, resistance to those agents emerges. Therefore, there is an increased appetite for alternative antimicrobial agents to traditional antibiotics. Here, we used in silico methods to investigate potential antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) from predatory myxobacteria. 672 potential AMP sequences were extracted from eight complete myxobacterial genomes. Most putative AMPs were predicted to be active against Klebsiella pneumoniae with least activity being predicted against Staphylococcus aureus. 117 AMPs (defined here as ‘potent putative AMPs’) were predicted to have very good activity against more than two bacterial pathogens and these were characterized further in silico. All potent putative AMPs were predicted to have anti-inflammatory and antifungal properties, but none were predicted to be active against viruses. 26 (22%) of them were predicted to be hemolytic to human erythrocytes, five were predicted to have anticancer properties and 56 (47%) were predicted to be biofilm active. Invitro assays using four synthesized AMPs showed promising antibiofilm activities despite high MIC values. 14 putative AMPs had high sequence similarity to proteins which were functionally associated with proteins of known function. The myxobacterial genomes also possessed a variety of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) that can encode antimicrobial secondary metabolites, but their numbers did not correlate with those of the AMPs. We suggest that AMPs from myxobacteria are a promising source of novel antimicrobial agents with a plethora of biological properties.