Screening of marine bacteria as a source of bioactive secondary metabolites

Abstract

Marine invertebrate associated (MIA) bacteria are an important source of bioactive secondary metabolites with the potential to address the current anti-microbial resistance crisis experienced globally. Secondary metabolites (SM) have historically yielded several compounds with pharmaceutical applications such as anti-viral, anti-microbial, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and anti-parasitic. This study aimed to use bioassay and genomic approaches in the identification of MIA bacteria isolated from South African marine invertebrates as a source of bioactive compounds and the characterisation of the produced SMs using analytical techniques. A total of 23 MIA bacteria were cultured under different conditions (one strain many compounds approach (OSMAC)) to evaluate their ability to produce anti-microbial compounds against a panel of indicator strains namely Escherichia coli 1699, Bacillus cereus ATCC10702, Pseudomonas putida ATCC12633, Mycobacterium aurum A+, Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC14990, Aspergillus fumigatus MRC and Candida albicans NIOH.