Nature-based solution to eliminate cyanotoxins in water using biologically enhanced biochar.

Climate change and high eutrophication levels of freshwater sources are increasing the occurrence and intensity of toxic cyanobacterial blooms in drinking water supplies. Conventional water treatment struggles to eliminate cyanobacteria/cyanotoxins and expensive tertiary treatments are needed. To address this, we have designed a sustainable, nature-based solution using biochar derived from waste coconut shells. This biochar provides a low-cost porous support for immobilising microbial communities forming biologically enhanced biochar (BEB). Highly toxic microcystin-LR (MC-LR) was used to influence microbial colonization of the biochar by natural lake water microbiome. Over 11 months, BEBs were exposed to microcystins, cyanobacterial extracts and live cyanobacterial cells, always resulting in rapid elimination of toxins and even a 1.6-1.9 log reduction in cyanobacterial cell numbers. After 48 hours incubation with our BEBs, the MC-LR concentrations dropped below the detection limit of 0.1 ng/ml. The accelerated degradation of cyanotoxins was attributed to enhanced species diversity and microcystin-degrading microbes colonising the biochar. To ensure scalability, we evaluated BEBs produced through batch-scale and continuous-scale pyrolysis, while also guaranteeing safety by maintaining toxic impurities in biochar within acceptable limits and monitoring degradation by-products. This study serves as a proof-of-concept for a sustainable, scalable and safe nature-based solution for combatting toxic algal blooms

Accramycin A, a New Aromatic Polyketide, from the Soil Bacterium, Streptomyces sp. MA37

Funding: FM thanks the University of the Philippines for the Faculty, Reps and Staff Development Program (FRAS DP) for the PhD grant fellowship. HD and KK thank the financial supports of Leverhulme Trust-Royal Society Africa award (AA090088) and MRC African Research Leaders Award (MR/S00520X/1). R.E. and S.S. are grateful to British Council/Newton Fund for financial support through the Institutional Links scheme (Project No. 261781172). QF is grateful to the University of Aberdeen Elphinstone Scholarship and Scottish Funding Council/ScotCHEM for financial support through the PEER/PERCE Funding.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Sulfated Steroid–Amino Acid Conjugates from the Irish Marine Sponge Polymastia boletiformis

Antifungal bioactivity-guided fractionation of the organic extract of the sponge Polymastia boletiformis, collected from the west coast of Ireland, led to the isolation of two new sulfated steroid-amino acid conjugates (1 and 2). Extensive 1D and 2D NMR analyses in combination with quantum mechanical calculations of the electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectra, optical rotation, and 13C chemical shifts were used to establish the chemical structures of 1 and 2. Both compounds exhibited moderate antifungal activity against Cladosporium cucumerinum, while compound 2 was also active against Candida albicans. Marine natural products containing steroidal and amino acid constituents are extremely rare in nature

Linking biosynthetic and chemical space to accelerate microbial secondary metabolite discovery

Secondary metabolites can be viewed as a chemical language, facilitating communication between microorganisms. From an ecological point of view, this metabolite exchange is in constant flux due to evolutionary and environmental pressures. From a biomedical perspective, the chemistry is unsurpassed for its antibiotic properties. Genome sequencing of microorganisms has revealed a large reservoir of Biosynthetic Gene Clusters (BGCs); however, linking these to the secondary metabolites they encode is currently a major bottleneck to chemical discovery. This linking of genes to metabolites with experimental validation will aid the elicitation of silent or cryptic (not expressed under normal laboratory conditions) BGCs. As a result, this will accelerate chemical dereplication, our understanding of gene transcription and provide a comprehensive resource for synthetic biology. This will ultimately provide an improved understanding of both the biosynthetic and chemical space. In recent years, integrating these complex metabolomic and genomic data sets has been achieved using a spectrum of manual and automated approaches. In this review, we cover examples of these approaches, while addressing current challenges and future directions in linking these data sets

Degradation of multiple peptides by microcystin-degrader Paucibacter toxinivorans (2C20).

Since conventional drinking water treatments applied in different countries are inefficient at eliminating potentially toxic cyanobacterial peptides, a number of bacteria have been studied as an alternative to biological filters for the removal of microcystins (MCs). Here, we evaluated the degradation of not only MCs variants (-LR/DM-LR/-RR/-LF/-YR), but also non-MCs peptides (anabaenopeptins A/B, aerucyclamides A/D) by Paucibactertoxinivorans over 7 days. We also evaluated the degradation rate of MC-LR in a peptide mix, with all peptides tested, and in the presence of M. aeruginosa crude extract. Furthermore, biodegradation was assessed for non-cyanobacterial peptides with different chemical structures, such as cyclosporin A, (Glu1)-fibrinopeptide-B, leucine-enkephalin, and oxytocin. When cyanopeptides were individually added, P. toxinivorans degraded them (99%) over 7 days, except for MC-LR and -RR, which decreased by about 85 and 90%, respectively. The degradation rate of MC-LR decreased in the peptide mix compared to an individual compound, however, in the presence of the Microcystis extract, it was degraded considerably faster (3 days). It was noted that biodegradation rates decreased in the mix for all MCs while non-MCs peptides were immediately degraded. UPLC–QTOF–MS/MS allowed us to identify two linear biodegradation products for MC-LR and MC-YR, and one for MC-LF. Furthermore, P. toxinivorans demonstrated complete degradation of non-cyanobacterial peptides, with the exception of oxytocin, where around 50% remained after 7 days. Thus, although P. toxinivorans was previously identified as a MC-degrader, it also degrades a wide range of peptides under a range of conditions, which could be optimized as a potential biological tool for water treatment

Comparative metabologenomics analysis of polar actinomycetes.

Biosynthetic and chemical datasets are the two major pillars for microbial drug discovery in the omics era. Despite the advancement of analysis tools and platforms for multi-strain metabolomics and genomics, linking these information sources remains a considerable bottleneck in strain prioritisation and natural product discovery. In this study, molecular networking of the 100 metabolite extracts derived from applying the OSMAC approach to 25 Polar bacterial strains, showed growth media specificity and potential chemical novelty was suggested. Moreover, the metabolite extracts were screened for antibacterial activity and promising selective bioactivity against drug-persistent pathogens such as Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter baumannii was observed. Genome sequencing data were combined with metabolomics experiments in the recently developed computational approach, NPLinker, which was used to link BGC and molecular features to prioritise strains for further investigation based on biosynthetic and chemical information. Herein, we putatively identified the known metabolites ectoine and chrloramphenicol which, through NPLinker, were linked to their associated BGCs. The metabologenomics approach followed in this study can potentially be applied to any large microbial datasets for accelerating the discovery of new (bioactive) specialised metabolites

Can Crude Oil Exploration Influence the Phytochemicals and Bioactivity of Medicinal Plants? : A Case of Nigerian Vernonia amygdalina and Ocimum gratissimum.

Acknowledgments The authors also thank Ruangelie Edrada- Ebel of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The Natural Products Metabolomics Group, Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde for her contribution to the methodology. Funding The authors recognise the financial support of the Schlumberger Faculty for the Future Foundation Scholarship to conduct the present study.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Morphological, genotypic and metabolomic signatures confirm interfamilial hybridization between the ubiquitous kelps Macrocystis (Arthrothamnaceae) and Lessonia (Lessoniaceae)

We thank the support from G. Millne (UoA), M. Rateb (UoA) and D. Zagal (UACh) in the histological preparations, mass spectrometry set-up and the cultivation of the hybrid progeny, respectively. PM and LM developed part of this work with BecasChile (Fondecyt) funding, specifically grants No. 72130422 (PM) and No. 73140389 (LM). We would like to acknowledge the British Council Newton Fund Institutional Links, project No. 261781172 for funding SS a postdoctoral research fellow. We are also grateful to the UK Natural Environment Research Council for their support to FCK (program Oceans 2025–WP 4.5 and grants NE/D521522/1 and NE/ J023094/1). This work also received support from the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland pooling initiative. MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions. RW thanks financial support from Gobierno Regional de Los Lagos (grants FIC 2012 E7259-2 and FIC 2013 BIP30234872-0) and Fondef, Conicyt (HUAM AQ12I0010), which allows the sampling expeditions at Chiloe Island by PM, LM, DJP.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Awakening ancient polar actinobacteria : diversity, evolution and specialized metabolite potential

Polar and subpolar ecosystems are highly vulnerable to global climate change with consequences for biodiversity and community composition. Bacteria are directly impacted by future environmental change and it is therefore essential to have a better understanding of microbial communities in fluctuating ecosystems. Exploration of Polar environments, specifically sediments, represents an exciting opportunity to uncover bacterial and chemical diversity and link this to ecosystem and evolutionary parameters. In terms of specialized metabolite production, the bacterial order Actinomycetales, within the phylum Actinobacteria are unsurpassed, producing 10,000 specialized metabolites accounting for over 45% of all bioactive microbial metabolites. A selective isolation approach focused on spore-forming Actinobacteria of 12 sediment cores from the Antarctic and sub-Arctic generated a culture collection of 50 strains. This consisted of 39 strains belonging to rare actinomycetales genera including Microbacterium, Rhodococcus and Pseudonocardia. This study used a combination of nanopore sequencing and molecular networking to explore the community composition, culturable bacterial diversity, evolutionary relatedness and specialized metabolite potential of these strains. Metagenomic analyses using MinION sequencing was able to detect the phylum Actinobacteria across polar sediment cores at an average of 13% of the total bacterial reads. The resulting molecular network consisted of 1652 parent ions and the lack of known metabolite identification supports the argument that Polar bacteria are likely to produce previously unreported chemistry

Screening fungal endophytes derived from under-explored Egyptian marine habitats for antimicrobial and antioxidant properties in factionalised textiles

Marine endophytic fungi from under-explored locations are a promising source for the discovery of new bioactivities. Different endophytic fungi were isolated from plants and marine organisms collected from Wadi El-Natrun saline lakes and the Red Sea near Hurghada, Egypt. The isolated strains were grown on three different media, and their ethyl acetate crude extracts were evaluated for their antimicrobial activity against a panel of pathogenic bacteria and fungi as well as their antioxidant properties. Results showed that most of the 32 fungal isolates initially obtained possessed antimicrobial and antioxidant activities. The most potent antimicrobial extracts were applied to three different cellulose containing fabrics to add new multifunctional properties such as ultraviolet protection and antimicrobial functionality. For textile safety, the toxicity profile of the selected fungal extract was evaluated on human fibroblasts. The 21 strains displaying bioactivity were identified on molecular basis and selected for chemical screening and dereplication, which was carried out by analysis of the MS/MS data using the Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking (GNPS) platform. The obtained molecular network revealed molecular families of compounds commonly produced by fungal strains, and in combination with manual dereplication, further previously reported metabolites were identified as well as potentially new derivatives