Probing the biosynthetic potential of Streptomyces sp. RKND-216
LeClair, Maggie
Honours
2022
Cartmell, Chris
Bachelor of Science
Faculty of Science. Honours in Chemistry
Chemistry
University of Prince Edward Island
Charlottetown, PE
The study of natural products has yielded an impressive number of novel chemical entities that have developed into successful therapeutic agents over the last few decades.1 Secondary metabolites have also been demonstrated to serve as effective antibiotics.2 However, growing antibiotic resistance among patients proves to be a dangerous threat to the longevity of human life and the ability to treat bacterial infections safely.3 In an effort to combat growing antimicrobial resistance, the Show moreThe study of natural products has yielded an impressive number of novel chemical entities that have developed into successful therapeutic agents over the last few decades.1 Secondary metabolites have also been demonstrated to serve as effective antibiotics.2 However, growing antibiotic resistance among patients proves to be a dangerous threat to the longevity of human life and the ability to treat bacterial infections safely.3 In an effort to combat growing antimicrobial resistance, the diversity and proven success of natural products is an area of research worth exploring. The great plate anomaly currently restricts scientists to culturing roughly 1% of existing bacteria.4,5 However, genome sequencing has illustrated the biosynthetic potential of bacteria and fungi to produce additional natural products which are unable to be observed under standard laboratory conditions.6 The purpose of this project is to explore methods of probing the biosynthetic capabilities of Streptomyces sp. RKND-216, a marine sediment isolated in Prince Edward Island. Due to the extreme diversity and under-exploration of the oceans, marine bacteria are an even more promising area of research within natural product chemistry.7,8 The results of this thesis support the challenges of activating silent pathways among different bacterial strains but also illustrate that new compounds can still be isolated from currently known strains with the perseverance to find appropriate conditions. RKND-216 was found to produce a new secondary metabolite when supplemented with salt, levesqamide C, which was structurally proposed using spectroscopic techniques. The future applications of natural product chemistry remain an exciting area of research that will indisputably further drug discovery and help to reduce the threat of antibiotic resistance. Show less
Contact Author
PUBLISHED
