[Contribution to the study of the para-tuberculous bacillus (bacillus F3)].
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Biosurfactant production is a desirable property of hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms (HDM). We characterized biosurfactant producing microbial populations from a Long Beach soil, California (USA) and a Hong Kong soil (China), contaminated with diesel oil. A total of 33 hydrocarbon-utilizing microorganisms were isolated from the soils. Twelve isolates and three defined consortia were tested for biosurfactant production and emulsification activity. The highest reduction of surface tension was achieved with a consortium of L1, L2 and L3 isolates from a Long Beach soil (41.4mN m(-1)). Isolate L1 (Acinetobacter junii) displayed the highest reduction of surface tension (46.5 mN m(-1)). The emulsifying capacity evaluated by the E24 emulsification index was highest in the culture of isolate L5 (74%). No substantial emulsification was achieved with the cell-free extracts, indicating that the emulsifying activity was not extracellular. Based on surface tension and the E24 index results, isolates F1, F2, F3, F4, L1, L2, L3 and L4 were identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing as Bacillus cereus, Bacillus sphaericus, B. fusiformis, Acinetobacter junii, a non-cultured bacterium, Pseudomonas sp. and B. pumilus, respectively. Cluster analyses of 16S rRNA gene sequences of the bacterial isolates revealed 70% similarity amongst hydrocarbon-degrading bacterial community present in both soils. Five isolates (isolates F1, F2, F3, F4 and L4) belong to the Firmicutes order, two isolates (L1 and L3) belong to the Proteobacteria order and one isolate (L2) is an Actinomyces sp. Simpson's index (1 - D) and the Shannon-Weaver index (H) revealed more diversity of HDM in the Hong Kong soil, while evenness (E) and the equitability (J) data indicated that there was not a dominant population. Bacterial isolates displaying substantial potential for production of biosurfactants can be applied in the bioremediation of soils contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons.
The gene encoding a 2,6-beta-D-fructan 6-levanbiohydrolase (LF2ase) (EC 3.2.1.64) that converts levan into levanbiose was cloned from the genomic DNA of Streptomyces exfoliatus F3-2. The gene encoded a signal peptide of 37 amino acids and a mature protein of 482 amino acids with a total length of 1560 bp and was successfully expressed in Escherichia coli. The similarities of primary structure were observed with levanases from Clostridium acetobutylicum, Bacillus subtilis, B. stearothermophilus (51.0-54.3%) and with LF2ase from Microbacterium levaniformans (53.9%). The enzyme from S. exfoliatus F3-2 shared the conserved six domains and the completely conserved five amino acid residues with family 32 glycosyl hydrolases, which include levanase, inulinase, and invertase. These observations led to the conclusion that the enzyme belongs to family 32 glycosyl hydrolases.
Microorganisms producing antibiotics have been genetically converted by earlier workers to mutants which cannot produce antibiotic without supplementation with a moiety of the antibiotic. These antibiotics include neomycin, kanamycin, paromomycin, butirosin, sisomicin, ribostamycin and novobiocin. Success has not been reported for organisms producing guanidinocyclitol antibiotics such as streptomycin. We mutagenized conidia of the streptomycin-producing Streptomyces griseus strain 7-455F3 with nitrosoguanidine at pH 7.0. Non-producers of streptomycin were visually selected by the agar-plug technique using Bacillus subtilis. We successfully isolated mutant MIT-A5 which produces no streptomycin unless streptidine is added to the agar medium. The streptidine-dependent phenotype was confirmed in submerged culture in flasks. Attempts to produce new antibiotics by feeding aminocyclitols to mutant MIT-A5 failed. However a new antibiotic (streptomutin A) was produced by supplementation with the guanidinocyclitol, 2-deoxystreptidine. We propose the term "mutational biosynthesis" for the production of new metabolites by the use of mutants blocked in the biosynthetic pathway to the secondary metabolite. We further propose the term "idiotroph" to properly describe such mutants.
Acetylspiramycin (ASPM) was fractionated using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The peak fractions were named F1 to F7 successively in order of increasing retention times (Rt), i.e., increasing hydrophobicity, and studied for 1) antibacterial activities (MIC), 2) antibacterial potency against Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633, 3) therapeutic effect on mice infected with Streptococcus pneumoniae III, Staphylococcus aureus Smith, 4) acute toxicity by i.p. administration to mice (LD50) and 5) cytotoxicities to fibroblasts derived from Chinese-hamster lung (CHL), cow pulmonary artery endothelial cells (CPAE) and rat hepatic cells. The results obtained are summarized below. 1. Components F1 and 4'-acetylspiramycin F2 had significantly different biological activities from those of other components: F1 showed the lowest antibacterial potency of 492 micrograms (potency)/mg, F2 showed the highest antibacterial potency of 2,040 micrograms (potency)/mg and correspondingly the lowest LD50 value of 692 mg/kg (the highest toxicity). The therapeutic effect of F2 on infections in mice was found to be the second smallest and was superior only to that of F1. The LD50 value of F1 was 1,200 mg/kg and similar to that of ASPM. 2. Antibacterial potencies of F3, F4, F5 and F6 were 1,165, 1,266, 1,374 and 1,530 micrograms (potency)/mg, respectively; fraction with the higher antibacterial activities corresponded to the longer retention times, i.e., the greater hydrophobicities. The most hydrophobic component, F7, 3-propionyl-3",4"-diacetylspiramycin, however, showed a low antibacterial potency of 1,085 micrograms (potency)/mg, next to the lowest one, F1, a fact which was in contradiction to with the sequential relation between hydrophobicities and potencies from F3 to F6.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Pasteuria penetrans will build-up faster where there is a high initial nematode density and can suppress root-knot nematode populations in the roots of tomato plants. The effect of different initial densities of nematode (Meloidogyne javanica) (150, 750, 1500, 3000) and P. penetrans infected females (F1, F3) densities (F0=control and AC=absolute control without nematode or P. penetrans inoculum) on the build-up of Pasteuria population was investigated over four crop cycles. Two major points of interest were highlighted. First, that within a confined soil volume, densities of P. penetrans can increase >100 times within 2 or 3 crop cycles. Second, from a relatively small amount of spore inoculum, infection of the host is very high. There were more infected females in the higher P. penetrans doses. The root growth data confirms the greater number of females in the controls particularly at the higher inoculum densities in the third and fourth crops. P. penetrans generally caused the fresh root weights to be higher than those in the control. P. penetrans has shown greater reduction of egg masses per plant at most densities. The effects of different initial densities of M. javanica and P. penetrans on the development of the pest and parasite populations were monitored. And no attempt was made to return the P. penetrans spores to the pots after each crop so the build-up in actual numbers of infected females and spores under natural conditions may be underestimated.