Genome Mining Revealed a High Biosynthetic Potential for Antifungal <i>Streptomyces</i> sp. S-2 Isolated from Black Soot

• Main Authors: Piotr Siupka, Artur Piński, Dagmara Babicka, Zofia Piotrowska-Seget
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-04-01
• Series: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
• Subjects: antifungal activity; biosynthetic gene clusters; black soot; coal-related environments; genome mining; <i>Streptomyces</i>
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/7/2558

The increasing resistance of fungal pathogens has heightened the necessity of searching for new organisms and compounds to combat their spread. <i>Streptomyces</i> are bacteria that are well-known for the production of many antibiotics. To find novel antibiotic agents, researchers have turned to previously neglected and extreme environments. Here, we isolated a new strain, <i>Streptomyces</i> sp. S-2, for the first time, from black soot after hard coal combustion (collected from an in-use household chimney). We examined its antifungal properties against plant pathogens and against fungi that potentially pose threat to human health (<i>Fusarium avenaceum</i>, <i>Aspergillus niger</i> and the environmental isolates <i>Trichoderma</i> citrinoviridae Cin-9, <i>Nigrospora oryzae</i> sp. roseF7, and <i>Curvularia coatesieae</i> sp. junF9). Furthermore, we obtained the genome sequence of S-2 and examined its potential for secondary metabolites production using anti-SMASH software. The S-2 strain shows activity against all of the tested fungi. Genome mining elucidated a vast number of biosynthetic gene clusters (55), which distinguish this strain from closely related strains. The majority of the predicted clusters were assigned to non-ribosomal peptide synthetases or type 1 polyketide synthetases, groups known to produce compounds with antimicrobial activity. A high number of the gene clusters showed no, or low similarity to those in the database, raising the possibility that S-2 could be a producer of novel antibiotics. Future studies on <i>Streptomyces</i> sp. S-2 will elucidate its full biotechnological potential.