Mining fungal secondary metabolites for novel antimicrobials
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Date
2020-02-24
Authors
Kurdi, Aamer
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Abstract
Evidence of antibiotic resistance evolving in various bacterial pathogens is accumulating, increasing the urgency to search for new antibiotics. Fighting antibiotic resistance requires a multi-pronged approach that includes studying the mechanism of resistance and mining for new antibiotics. Bacteria, such as Streptomyces, and fungi are an excellent source for secondary metabolites with antibacterial and other biological activities. The purpose of this study was to purify and characterize novel fungal isolates that produce antibiotics. Various geographical locations were selected for isolating fungi. A total of 570 fungal strains were isolated and 73 fungal strains showed antibacterial activities against an efflux-deficient strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Six fungi were selected based on their antibacterial properties against Gram-negative (P. aeruginosa and A. baumannii) and Gram-positive (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) bacteria for further analysis. One isolate labeled as 58-5, showed promising results as six unknown metabolites were detected by liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy LC-MS. This isolate was selected for future experiments in order to identify and eventually produce these unknown metabolites. This work shows that fungi are an excellent source of novel antibiotics and thus can serve as an effective asset in our fight against antibiotic resistant bacteria.
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Keywords
Fungi, Secondary metabolites, Antimicrobials