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Lookup NU author(s): Felaine Sumang, Emeritus Professor Alan Ward, Emeritus Professor Jeff Errington, Dr Yousef Dashti
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© The Author(s) 2024.Plants and microbes are closely associated with each other in their ecological niches. Much has been studied about plant–microbe interactions, but little is known about the effect of phytochemicals on microbes at the molecular level. To access the products of cryptic biosynthetic gene clusters in bacteria, we incorporated an organic extract of hibiscus flowers into the culture media of different Actinobacteria isolated from plant rhizospheres. This approach led to the production of broad-spectrum dithiolopyrrolone (DTP) antibiotics, thiolutin (1) and aureothricin (2), by Streptomyces sp. MBN2-2. The compounds from the hibiscus extract responsible for triggering the production of these two DTPs were found to be hibiscus acid dimethyl ester (3) and hydroxycitric acid 1,3-dimethyl ester (4). It was subsequently found that the addition of either Fe2+ or Fe3+ to culture media induced the production of 1 and 2. The Chrome Azurol S (CAS) assay revealed that 3 and 4 can chelate iron, and therefore, the mechanism leading to the production of thiolutin and aureothricin appears to be related to changes in iron concentration levels. This work supports the idea that phytochemicals can be used to activate the production of cryptic microbial biosynthetic gene clusters and further understand plant–microbe interactions. Graphical Abstract: (Figure presented.)
Author(s): Sumang FA, Ward A, Errington J, Dashti Y
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Natural Products and Bioprospecting
Year: 2024
Volume: 14
Issue: 1
Online publication date: 03/07/2024
Acceptance date: 14/06/2024
Date deposited: 16/07/2024
ISSN (print): 2192-2195
ISSN (electronic): 2192-2209
Publisher: Springer
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13659-024-00460-0
DOI: 10.1007/s13659-024-00460-0
Data Access Statement: All data are included in the main text and its supplementary information file.
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