Bioprospecting Red Sea Coastal Ecosystems for Culturable Microorganisms and Their Antimicrobial Potential.

Microorganisms that inhabit unchartered unique soil such as in the highly saline and hot Red Sea lagoons on the Saudi Arabian coastline, represent untapped sources of potentially new bioactive compounds. In this study, a culture-dependent approach was applied to three types of sediments: mangrove mud (MN), microbial mat (MM), and barren soil (BS), collected from Rabigh harbor lagoon (RHL) and Al-Kharrar lagoon (AKL). The isolated bacteria were evaluated for their potential to produce bioactive compounds. The phylogenetic characterization of 251 bacterial isolates based on the 16S rRNA gene sequencing, supported their assignment to five different phyla: Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Planctomycetes. Fifteen putative novel species were identified based on a 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to other strain sequences in the NCBI database, being ≤98%. We demonstrate that 49 of the 251 isolates exhibit the potential to produce antimicrobial compounds. Additionally, at least one type of biosynthetic gene sequence, responsible for the synthesis of secondary metabolites, was recovered from 25 of the 49 isolates. Moreover, 10 of the isolates had a growth inhibition effect towards Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhimurium and Pseudomonas syringae. We report the previously unknown antimicrobial activity of B. borstelensis, P. dendritiformis and M. salipaludis against all three indicator pathogens. Our study demonstrates the evidence of diverse cultured microbes associated with the Red Sea harbor/lagoon environments and their potential to produce antimicrobial compounds.

Metagenomics as a preliminary screen for antimicrobial bioprospecting.

Since the composition of soil directs the diversity of the contained microbiome and its potential to produce bioactive compounds, many studies has been focused on sediment types with unique features characteristic of extreme environments. However, not much is known about the potential of microbiomes that inhabit the highly saline and hot Red Sea lagoons. This case study explores mangrove mud and the microbial mat of sediments collected from the Rabigh harbor lagoon and Al Kharrar lagoon for antimicrobial bioprospecting. Rabigh harbor lagoon appears the better location, and the best sediment type for this purpose is mangrove mud. On the other hand, Al Kharrar lagoon displayed increased anaerobic hydrocarbon degradation and an abundance of bacterial DNA associated with antibiotic resistance. Moreover, our findings show an identical shift in phyla associated with historic hydrocarbon contamination exposure reported in previous studies (that is, enrichment of Gamma- and Delta-proteobacteria), but we also report that bacterial DNA sequences associated with antibiotic synthesis enzymes are derived from Gamma-, Delta- and Alpha-proteobacteria. This suggests that selection pressure associated with hydrocarbon contamination tend to enrich the bacterial classes DNA associated with antibiotic synthesis enzymes. Although Actinobacteria tends to be the common target for research when it comes to antimicrobial bioprospecting, our study suggests that Firmicutes (Bacilli and Clostridia), Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria, and Proteobacteria should be antimicrobial bioprospecting targets as well. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first metagenomic study that analyzed the microbiomes in Red Sea lagoons for antimicrobial bioprospecting.