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A purple colony, designated as TRC1.1.SA was isolated from a tea garden soil sample. It was a Gram-negative, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming and motile bacterium. The strain TRC1.1.SA T grew aerobically at temperatures 15-37 ℃ and pH levels 5.0-9.0. It showed both oxidase and catalase activity. The 16S rRNA gene sequence blast analysis revealed identity with the members of the genus Chromobacterium. The maximum identity was with the type strains of species Chromobacterium piscinae CCM 3329 T (99.8%), C. vaccinii MWU205 T (99.7%), and C. violaceum ATCC 12472 T (98.7%). However, the average nucleotide identity (ANI) of the genome sequence showed less than 96% similarity with all species of the genus Chromobacterium. Further, digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) revealed the highest identity of 63.4% with its phylogenetic relative C. piscinae CCM 3329 T . The G + C content of the strain was 63.9%. The major polar lipids identified were phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG), and phosphoglyceraldehyde (PG). Fatty acid analysis showed C 16:0, C 16:1 ω7c, C 17:0 cyclo, and C 18:1 ω7c as the major fatty acids. RAST and antiSMASH analyses of the genome revealed the presence of a biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) involved in the production of violacein pigment, as observed for type species C. violaceum ATCC 12472 T . Considering the phenotypic differences and genomic identity, strain TRC1.1.SA T is assigned as a novel species of the genus Chromobacterium, for which the name Chromobacterium indicum is proposed. The type strain of prospective species is designated as TRC1.1.SA T (= MTCC 13391 T ; JCM 36723 T ; = KCTC 8324 T )., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Biomedical implants are crucial for enhancing various human physiological functions. However, they are susceptible to microbial contamination after implantation, posing a risk of implant failure. To address this issue, hydrogel-based coatings are used, but achieving both effective antibacterial properties and stable adhesion remains challenging. This study introduces a hybrid hydrogel network made from Tannic Acid (TA) and Poly-l-Lysine (PLL), cross-linked through ionic and hydrogen bonds, which imparts adhesive and anti-infective properties. The physicochemical analysis revealed that the hydrogels exhibited significant porosity, favorable mechanical characteristics, and demonstrated in vitro enzymatic biodegradation. Moreover, the hydrogels demonstrated adhesion to various substrates, including Ti alloy with an adhesive strength of 42.5 kPa, and retained their integrity even after immersion in water for a minimum of 10 days. The modified Ti surfaces significantly reduced protein adsorption (∼70 %), indicating antifouling properties. The hydrogels prevented bacterial adhesion on titanium surfaces through a "contact-kill" mode of action and inhibited biofilm formation by around 94.5 % for Staphylococcus aureus and 90.8 % for Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The modified Ti retained biofilm inhibitory effects for at least six days without significant performance decline. In vitro cytotoxicity assay confirmed the biocompatibility of the hydrogels with NIH3T3 cells. Overall, these results highlight the competence of hybrid hydrogels as effective coatings for Ti implants, offering strong adhesion and biofilm prevention to mitigate implant-related infections., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Sophorolipids are glycolipid biosurfactants with potential antibacterial, antifungal, and anticancer applications, rendering them promising for research. Therefore, this study hypothesizes that sophorolipids may have a notable impact on disrupting membrane integrity and triggering the production of reactive oxygen species, ultimately resulting in the eradication of pathogenic microbes., Results: The current study resulted in the isolation of two Metschnikowia novel yeast strains. Sophorolipids production from these strains reached maximum yields of 23.24 g/l and 21.75 g/l, respectively, at the bioreactors level. Biosurfactants sophorolipids were characterized using FTIR and LC-MS techniques and found to be a mixture of acidic and lactonic forms with molecular weights of m/z 678 and 700. Our research elucidated sophorolipids' mechanism in disrupting bacterial and fungal membranes through ROS generation, confirmed by transmission electron microscopy and FACS analysis. The results showed that these compounds disrupted the membrane integrity and induced ROS production, leading to cell death in Klebsiella pneumoniae and Fusarium solani. In addition, the anticancer properties of sophorolipids were investigated on the A549 lung cancer cell line and found that sophorolipid-11D (SL-11D) and sophorolipid-11X (SL-11X) disrupted the actin cytoskeleton, as evidenced by immunofluorescence microscopy. The A549 cells were stained with Acridine orange/Ethidium bromide, which showed that they underwent necrosis. This was confirmed by flow cytometric analysis using Annexin/PI staining. The SL-11D and SL-11X molecules exhibited low levels of haemolytic activity and in-vitro cytotoxicity in HEK293, Caco-2, and L929 cell lines., Conclusion: In this work, novel yeast species CIG-11D T and CIG-11X T , isolated from the bee's gut, produce significant yields of sophorolipids without needing secondary oil sources, indicating a more economical production method. Our research shows that sophorolipids disrupt bacterial and fungal membranes via ROS production. They suggest they may act as chemo-preventive agents by inducing apoptosis in lung cancer cells, offering the potential for enhancing anticancer therapies., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

An antimicrobial producing Gram-positive, aerobic, nonmotile, and filamentous actinobacterial strain SKN60 T was isolated from soil The isolate exhibited 99.3% and 99.0% identity with Streptomyces laurentii ATCC 31255 T and S. roseicoloratus TRM 44457 T , respectively, in 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. However, the genome sequence displayed maximum ANI (88.45%) and AAI (85.61%) with S. roseicoloratus TRM 44457 T . Similarly, the dDDH showed 33.7% identity with S. roseicoloratus TRM 44457 T . It formed a cluster with S. roseicoloratus TRM 44457 T and S. laurentii ATCC 31255 T in phylogenomic tree. Cell wall analysis revealed the presence of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, and phosphatidylcholine as major polar lipids and diaminopimelic acid as diagnostic diamino acid. Major fatty acids were iso-C 15:0 , anteiso-C 15:0 , and iso-C 16:0 . The G+C content was found to be 72.3 mol%. Genome sequence analysis using antiSMASH database showed occurrence of a thiopeptide biosynthesis gene cluster with 94% similarity to berninamycin from S. bernensis UC5144. The mass of 1146 Da is identical with berninamycin. But subtle differences observed in leader peptide sequence of thiopeptide and berninamycin. Notably, S. bernensis is not validly reported and thus SKN60 T is the only strain containing berninamycin BGC as no other phylogenetic relative had it. Additionally, strain SKN60 T differed in phenotypic and genetic characteristics with all phylogenetic relatives of the genus Streptomyces . Therefore, it is proposed as a novel species with the name Streptomyces terrae sp. nov. strain SKN60 T (=MTCC 13163 T ; = JCM 35768 T )., Competing Interests: Authors declare no conflict of interest., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of FEMS.)

World health organization listed fungi as priority pathogens in 2022 to counter their adverse effects on human well-being. The use of antimicrobial biopolymers is a sustainable alternative to toxic antifungal agents. In this study, we explore chitosan as an antifungal agent by grafting a novel compound N-(4-((4-((isatinyl)methyl)piperazin-1-yl)sulfonyl)phenyl) acetamide (IS). The acetimidamide linkage of IS to chitosan herein was confirmed by 13 C NMR and is a new branch in chitosan pendant group chemistry. The modified chitosan films (ISCH) were studied using thermal, tensile, and spectroscopic methods. The ISCH derivatives strongly inhibit fungal pathogens of agricultural and human importance, namely Fusarium solani, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, Myrothecium verrucaria, Penicillium oxalicum, and Candida albicans. ISCH80 showed an IC 50 value of 0.85 μg/ml against M. verrucaria and ISCH100 with IC 50 of 1.55 μg/ml is comparable to the commercial antifungal IC 50 values of Triadiamenol (3.6 μg/ml) and Trifloxystrobin (3 μg/ml). Interestingly, the ISCH series remained non-toxic up to 2000 μg/ml against L929 mouse fibroblast cells. The ISCH series showed long-standing antifungal action, superior to our lowest observed antifungal IC 50 values of plain chitosan and IS at 12.09 μg/ml and 3.14 μg/ml, respectively. ISCH films are thus suitable for fungal inhibition in an agricultural setting or food preservation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A novel motile bacterium was isolated from a sediment sample collected in Kochi backwaters, Kerala, India. This bacterium is Gram negative, rod shaped, 1.0-1.5 µm wide, and 2.0-3.0 µm long. It was designated as strain AK27 T . Colonies were grown on marine agar displayed circular, off-white, shiny, moist, translucent, flat, margin entire, 1-2 mm in diameter. The major fatty acids identified in this strain were C 18:1 ω7c, C 16:0 , and summed in feature 3. The composition of polar lipids in the strain AK27 T included phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, one unidentified amino lipid, two unidentified aminophospholipids, two unidentified phospholipids, and six unidentified lipids. The genomic DNA of strain AK27 T exhibited a G+C content of 56.4 mol%. Based on the analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequence, strain AK27 T showed sequence similarity to M. ramblicola D7 T and M. zhoushanense WM3 T as 98.99% and 98.58%, respectively. Compared to other type strains of the Marinobacterium genus, strain AK27 T exhibited sequence similarities ranging from 91.7% to 96.4%. When compared to Marinobacterium zhoushanense WM3 T and Marinobacterium ramblicola D7 T , strain AK27 T exhibited average nucleotide identity values of 80.25% and 79.97%, and dDDH values of 22.9% and 22.6%, respectively. The genome size of the strain AK27 T was 4.55 Mb, with 4,229 coding sequences. Based on the observed phenotypic and chemotaxonomic features, and the results of phylogenetic and phylogenomic analysis, this study proposes the classification of strain AK27 T as a novel species within the genus Marinobacterium. The proposed name for this novel species is Marinobacterium lacunae sp. nov., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Four yeast strains were isolated from the gut of stingless bee, collected in Churdhar, Himachal Pradesh, India. Physiological characterization, morphological examination, and sequence analysis of small subunit ribosomal RNA (18S rRNA) genes, internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, and D1/D2 domain of the large subunit rRNA gene revealed that the four strains isolated from the gut of stingless bee belonged to the Debaryomyces clade. Strain CIG-23H T showed sequence divergence of 7.5% from Debaryomyces nepalensis JCM 2095 T , 7.8% from Debaryomyces udenii JCM 7855 T , and Debaryomyces coudertii JCM 2387 T in the D1/D2 domain. In the ITS region sequences, strain CIG-23H T showed a 15% sequence divergence from Debaryomyces nepalensis JCM 2095 T and Debaryomyces coudertii JCM 2387 T . In 18S rRNA gene sequence, the strain CIG-23H T showed 1.14% sequence divergence from Debaryomyces nepalensis JCM 2095 and and Debaryomyces coudertii JCM 2387, and 0.83% sequence divergence from Debaryomyces hansenii NRRL Y-7426. Strain CIG-23H T can utilize more carbon sources than closely related species. The findings suggest that strain CIG-23H T is a novel species of the genus Debaryomyces, and we propose to name it as Debaryomyces apis f.a., sp. nov. The holotype is CBS 16297 T , and the isotypes are MTCC 12914 T and KCTC 37024 T . The MycoBank number of Debaryomyces apis f.a., sp. nov. is MB836065. Additionally, a method using cresol red and Bromothymol blue pH indicator dyes was developed to screen for lipase producers, which is more sensitive and efficient than the currently used phenol red and rhodamine B dye-based screening methods, and avoids the problem of less differentiable zone of hydrolysis., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Typhoid fever is an acute illness caused by Salmonella Typhi and the current diagnostic gap leads to inaccurate, over-diagnosis of typhoid leading to excessive use of antibiotics. Herein, to address the challenges we describe a new rapid color-shift assay based on a novel bifunctional nanobioprobe (Vi-AgNP probe) that is functionalized with specific biomarker Vi polysaccharide and also has the co-presence of Ag as urease inhibitor. The immunoreactions between the Vi with specific antibodies (Abs) present in typhoid patient sample forms a shielding barrier over Vi-AgNP probe rendering the urease to be active, generating colored output. Vi polysaccharide coating on the AgNP was visualized using HRTEM. TEM was performed to get insight into shielding barrier formation by the Abs. MST (microscale thermophoresis) data showed less binding Kd of 7.43 μM in presence of Abs whereas probe with urease showed efficient binding with Kd 437 nM. The assay was validated using 53 human sera samples and proven effective with 100% sensitivity. The assay showed relative standard deviation (RSD) of 4.3% estimated using rabbit anti-Vi Abs. The entire procedure could be completed within 15 min. Unlike lateral flow based assays, our assay does not require multiple combination of Abs for detection. The assay format was also found compatible in paper strip test that provides promising opportunities to develop low-cost on-spot assay for clinical diagnostics., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Aim: This study was aimed to determine antimicrobial and antiviral activity of a novel lanthipeptide from a Brevibacillus sp. for disinfectant application., Methods and Results: The antimicrobial peptide (AMP) was produced by a bacterial strain AF8 identified as a member of the genus Brevibacillus representing a novel species. Whole genome sequence analysis using BAGEL identified a putative complete biosynthetic gene cluster involved in lanthipeptide synthesis. The deduced amino acid sequence of lanthipeptide named as brevicillin, showed >30% similarity with epidermin. Mass determined by MALDI-MS and Q-TOF suggested posttranslational modifications like dehydration of all Ser and Thr amino acids to yield Dha and Dhb, respectively. Amino acid composition determined upon acid hydrolysis is in agreement with core peptide sequence deduced from the putative biosynthetic gene bvrAF8. Biochemical evidence along with stability features ascertained posttranslational modifications during formation of the core peptide. The peptide showed strong activity with 99% killing of pathogens at 12 μg ml-1 within 1 minute. Interestingly, it also showed potent anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity by inhibiting ∼99% virus growth at 10 μg ml-1 in cell culture-based assay. Brevicillin did not show dermal allergic reactions in BALB/c mice., Conclusion: This study provides detailed description of a novel lanthipeptide and demonstrates its effective antibacterial, antifungal and anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Applied Microbiology International.)

Background: Rhodopsin is a seven-transmembrane protein covalently linked with retinal chromophore that absorbs photons for energy conversion and intracellular signaling in eukaryotes, bacteria, and archaea. Haloarchaeal rhodopsins are Type-I microbial rhodopsin that elicits various light-driven functions like proton pumping, chloride pumping and Phototaxis behaviour. The industrial application of Ion-pumping Haloarchaeal rhodopsins is limited by the lack of full-length rhodopsin sequence-based classifications, which play an important role in Ion-pumping activity. The well-studied Haloarchaeal rhodopsin is a proton-pumping bacteriorhodopsin that shows promising applications in optogenetics, biosensitized solar cells, security ink, data storage, artificial retinal implant and biohydrogen generation. As a result, a low-cost computational approach is required to identify Ion-pumping Haloarchaeal rhodopsin sequences and its subtype., Results: This study uses a support vector machine (SVM) technique to identify these ion-pumping Haloarchaeal rhodopsin proteins. The haloarchaeal ion pumping rhodopsins viz., bacteriorhodopsin, halorhodopsin, xanthorhodopsin, sensoryrhodopsin and marine prokaryotic Ion-pumping rhodopsins like actinorhodopsin, proteorhodopsin have been utilized to develop the methods that accurately identified the ion pumping haloarchaeal and other type I microbial rhodopsins. We achieved overall maximum accuracy of 97.78%, 97.84% and 97.60%, respectively, for amino acid composition, dipeptide composition and hybrid approach on tenfold cross validation using SVM. Predictive models for each class of rhodopsin performed equally well on an independent data set. In addition to this, similar results were achieved using another machine learning technique namely random forest. Simultaneously predictive models performed equally well during five-fold cross validation. Apart from this study, we also tested the own, blank, BLAST dataset and annotated whole-genome rhodopsin sequences of PWS haloarchaeal isolates in the developed methods. The developed web server ( https://bioinfo.imtech.res.in/servers/rhodopred ) can identify the Ion Pumping Haloarchaeal rhodopsin proteins and their subtypes. We expect this web tool would be useful for rhodopsin researchers., Conclusion: The overall performance of the developed method results show that it accurately identifies the Ionpumping Haloarchaeal rhodopsin and their subtypes using known and unknown microbial rhodopsin sequences. We expect that this study would be useful for optogenetics, molecular biologists and rhodopsin researchers., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

The common effluent treatment plant (CETP) located at Baddi treats the industrial effluent from various industries, leading to the pooling of a diverse range of substrates and metabolites. The nutrient loading and its availability decide the balance of the microbial community and its diversity. The samples thus collected from the activated sludge (BS14) of CETP and Sirsa river (SR1) from the vicinity of CETP effluent discharge were processed for the whole metagenome analysis to reveal the microbial community and its functional potential. The taxonomic classification of the BS14 sample showed the dominance of the bacterial community with 96% of abundance, whereas the SR1 was populated by eukaryotes representing 50.4% of the community of SR1. The bacterial community of SR1 was constituted of 47.2%. The functional analysis of BS14 and SR1 with GhostKOALA against the KEGG database assigned 43.7% and 27.8% of the open reading frames (ORFs) with functions. It revealed the xenobiotic degradation modules with complete pathways along with resistance against the beta-lactams. The analysis with the comprehensive antibiotic resistance database (CARD) revealed 33 and 32 unique types of antimicrobial resistance in BS14 and SR1, respectively. Both the samples were dominated by the beta-lactam resistance genes. The carbohydrate-active enzyme (CAZy) database assigned a total of 6,611 and 2,941 active enzymes to BS14 and SR1, respectively. In contrast, the glycosyl hydrolases (GH) and glycosyltransferases (GT) class of enzymes were found to be abundant in both the samples as compared with polysaccharide lyases (PL), auxiliary activities (AA), carbohydrate esterases (CE), and carbohydrate-binding module (CBM)., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Vasudeva, Singh, Paliwal and Pinnaka.)

Marine microbes produce polysaccharides with unique physicochemical and functional properties that help them survive in harsh marine environments. However, only a handful of marine exopolysaccharides (EPSs) have been reported to date. The present study explored the seashore of Visakhapatnam, India, to report a novel exopolysaccharide designated as Br42 produced by Brevibacillus borstelensis M42. The isolate was identified through morphological, biochemical, phylogenetic, and genome sequencing analysis. The studies on fermentation kinetics revealed that EPS Br42 was a primary metabolite with a maximum production of 1.88 ± 0.02 g/L after 60 h when production broth was fortified with 2% glucose. Additionally, EPS Br42 was found to be a heteropolysaccharide consisting of glucose and galacturonic acid with a molecular weight of about 286 kDa. Interestingly, this molecule possesses industrially relevant functional properties such as water-holding (510 ± 0.35%), oil-holding (374 ± 0.12% for coconut oil and 384 ± 0.35% for olive oil), and swelling capacities (146.6 ± 5.75%). EPS Br42 could form an emulsion that was stable at a wide pH range for about 72 h and, in fact, performed better as compared to Span 20, a commercially used synthetic emulsifier. Moreover, this EPS was also found to be heat stable and exhibited non-Newtonian pseudoplastic behavior. These physicochemical and functional properties of polysaccharides suggest that the EPS Br42 has potential for multifarious industrial applications as an emulsifier, stabilizer, viscosifier, and binding agent., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Lactiplantibacillus plantarum MTCC 2621 is a well-characterized probiotic strain and is reported to possess many health benefits. However, the wound healing potential of this probiotic is yet to be explored. Here, we have assessed the antibacterial, antioxidant, and wound healing activities of cell-free supernatant of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum MTCC 2621 (Lp2621). Lp2621 exhibited excellent antibacterial activity against the indicator bacteria in the agar well diffusion assay. Lp2621 did not show any hemolytic activity. The safety of Lp2621 gel was established using the skin irritation assay in BALB/c mice, and no dermal reactions were observed. The supernatant showed 60-100% protection of A549 cells against H 2 O 2 -induced stress. In the scratch assay, Lp2621 accelerated wound healing after 24 h of treatment. The percent wound healing was significantly higher in cells treated with Lp2621 at 18-24 h posttreatment. In an excision wound healing in mice, topical application of Lp2621 gel showed faster healing than the vehicle- and betadine-treated groups. Similar wound healing activity was observed in wounds infected with Staphylococcus aureus . Histological examination revealed better wound healing in Lp2621-treated mice. Topical treatment of the wounds with Lp2621 gel resulted in the upregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6 in the early phase of wound healing and enhanced IL-10 expression in the later phase. These findings unveil a protective role of Lp2621 against bacterial infection, oxidative stress, and wound healing., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Dubey, Podia, Priyanka, Raut, Singh, Pinnaka and Khatri.)

The oxygenases have attracted considerable attention in enzyme-mediated bioremediation of xenobiotic compounds due to their high specificity, cost-effectiveness, and targeted field applications. Here, we performed a functional metagenomics approach to cope with culturability limitations to isolate a novel extradiol dioxygenase. Fosmid clone harboring dioxygenase gene was sequenced and analyzed by bioinformatics tools. One ring-cleaving dioxygenase RW4-MPC (metapyrocatechase) was purified and characterized to examine its degradation efficiency. The RW4-MPC was significantly active in the temperature and pH range of 5 to 40 °C, and 7-10, respectively, with an optimum temperature of 25 °C and pH 8. To gain insight into observed differential activity, Small-Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) data of the protein samples were analyzed, which brought forth that the RW4-MPC molecules form tight globular tetramers in solution. This native association was stable till 35 °C, and protein started to associate at higher temperatures, explaining heat-induced loss of function. Similarly, RW4-MPC aggregated or lost globular profile below pH 7 or at pH 10, respectively. The kinetic parameters showed the six folds high catalytic efficiency of RW4-MPC towards 2,3-dihydroxy biphenyl than catechol and its derivatives. RW4-MPC molecules showed remarkable retention of functionality in hypersaline conditions with more than 70% activity in a buffer having 3 M NaCl concentration. In concordance, SAXS data analysis showed retention of functional shape profile in hypersaline conditions. The halotolerant and oxygen insensitive nature of this enzyme makes it a potential candidate for bioremediation., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A novel Gram-staining-negative, rod-shaped, 0.6-0.8 µm wide and 2.0-3.0 µm in length, motile bacterium designated strain AK62 T , was isolated from the green algal mat collected from saltpan, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, India. Colonies on ZMA were circular, off-white, shiny, moist, translucent, 1-2 mm in diameter, flat, with an entire margin. The major fatty acids include C 16:0 , C 18:1 ω7c, and summed feature 3 (C 16:1 ω7c and/or C 16:1 ω6c and/or iso-C 14:0 3-OH). Polar lipids include diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, one unidentified aminophospholipid, three unidentified phospholipids, and one unidentified lipid. Polyamine includes Spermidine. The DNA G + C content of the strain AK62 T was 58.8 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that strain AK62 T was closely related to the type strains Marinobacterium sediminicola, Marinobacterium coralli and Marinobacterium stanieri with a pair-wise sequence similarity of 96.9, 96.6 and 96.6%, respectively, forming a distinct branch within the genus Marinobacterium and clustered with M. stanieri, M. sediminicola, M. coralli and M. maritimum cluster. Strain AK62 T shares average nucleotide identity (ANIb, based on BLAST) of 78.44, 76.69, and 76.95% with M. sediminicola CGMCC 1.7287 T , M. stanieri DSM 7027 T , and Marinobacterium halophilum Mano11 T respectively. Based on the observed phenotypic, chemotaxonomic characteristics, and phylogenetic analysis, strain AK62 T is described in this study as a novel species in the genus Marinobacterium, for which the name Marinobacterium alkalitolerans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of M. alkalitolerans is AK62 T (= MTCC 12102 T  = JCM 31159 T  = KCTC 52667 T ).

Biosurfactants are potential biomolecules that have extensive utilization in cosmetics, medicines, bioremediation and processed foods. Yeast produced biosurfactants offer thermal resistance, antioxidant activity, and no risk of pathogenicity, illustrating their promising use in food formulations. The present study is aimed to assess potential of biosurfactant screened from a novel yeast and their inhibition against food spoilage fungi. A novel asexual ascomycetes yeast strain CIG-6A T producing biosurfactant, was isolated from the gut of stingless bee from Churdhar, HP, India. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that the strain CIG-6A T was closely related to Metschnikowia koreensis , showing 94.38% sequence similarity in the D1D2 region for which the name Metschnikowia churdharensis f.a., sp. nov., is proposed. The strain CIG-6A T was able to produce sophorolipid biosurfactant under optimum conditions. Sophorolipid biosurfactant from strain CIG-6A T effectively reduced the surface tension from 72.8 to 35 mN/m. Sophorolipid biosurfactant was characterized using TLC, FTIR, GC-MS and LC-MS techniques and was a mixture of both acidic and lactonic forms. Sophorolipid assessed promising activity against pathogenic fungi viz. Fusarium oxysporum (MTCC 9913), Fusarium solani (MTCC 350), and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (MTCC 2190). The inhibitory effect of biosurfactant CIG-6A T against F. solani was studied and MIC was 49 μgm/ml, further confirmed through confocal laser scanning microscopy. We illustrated the antifungal activity of sophorolipid biosurfactant from Metschnikowia genus for the first time and suggested a novel antifungal compound against food spoilage and human fungal pathogen., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Kumari, Kumari, Prasad and Pinnaka.)

Haloarchaea are salt-loving archaea and potential source of industrially relevant halotolerant enzymes. In the present study, three reddish-pink, extremely halophilic archaeal strains, namely wsp1 (wsp-water sample Pondicherry), wsp3, and wsp4, were isolated from the Indian Solar saltern. The phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences suggests that both wsp3 and wsp4 strains belong to Halogeometricum borinquense while wsp1 is closely related to Haloferax volcanii species. The comparative genomics revealed an open pangenome for both genera investigated here. Whole-genome sequence analysis revealed that these isolates have multiple copies of industrially/biotechnologically important unique genes and enzymes. Among these unique enzymes, for recombinant expression and purification, we selected four putative α-amylases identified in these three isolates. We successfully purified functional halotolerant recombinant Amy2, from wsp1 using pelB signal sequence-based secretion strategy using Escherichia coli as an expression host. This method may prove useful to produce functional haloarchaeal secretory recombinant proteins suitable for commercial or research applications. Biochemical analysis of Amy2 suggests the halotolerant nature of the enzyme having maximum enzymatic activity observed at 1 M NaCl. We also report the isolation and characterization of carotenoids purified from these isolates. This study highlights the presence of several industrially important enzymes in the haloarchaeal strains which may potentially have improved features like stability and salt tolerance suitable for industrial applications., (Copyright © 2020 Verma, Vasudeva, Sidhu, Pinnaka, Prasad and Thakur.)

Microbial taxonomy dealing with identification and characterization of prokaryotes like bacteria and archaea has always been a major area of research all over the world. Exploring diversity of microbes and description of novel species with different genes and secondary compounds is of utmost importance for better future and sustenance of life. India having an enormous range of ecosystems and diverse species inhabiting these niches is considered to be one of the richest biodiversity regions of the world. During the last decade, with newer methodologies and better technology, the prokaryotic taxonomy from India has extended our inventory of microbial communities in specific niches. However, there still exist some limitations in classifying the microbes from India as compared to that is done world-over. This review enlists the taxonomic description of novel taxa of prokaryotes from India in the past decade. A total of 378 new bacterial species have been classified from different habitats in India in the last ten years and no descriptions of archaeal species is documented till date., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (© Association of Microbiologists of India 2019.)

The release of synthetic chemical pollutants in the environment is posing serious health risks. Enzymes, including oxygenases, play a crucial role in xenobiotic degradation. In the present study, we employed a functional metagenomics approach to overcome the limitation of cultivability of microbes under standard laboratory conditions in order to isolate novel dioxygenases capable of degrading recalcitrant pollutants. Fosmid clones possessing dioxygenase activity were further sequenced, and their genes were identified using bioinformatics tools. Two positive fosmid clones, SD3 and RW1, suggested the presence of 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl 1,2-dioxygenase (BphC-SD3) and catechol 2,3-dioxygenase (C23O-RW1), respectively. Recombinant versions of these enzymes were purified to examine their pollutant-degrading abilities. The crystal structure of BphC-SD3 was determined at 2.6-Å resolution, revealing a two-domain architecture, i.e., N-terminal and C-terminal domains, with the sequential arrangement of βαβββ in each domain, characteristic of Fe-dependent class II type I extradiol dioxygenases. The structure also reveals the presence of conserved amino acids lining the catalytic pocket and Fe 3+ metal ion in the large funnel-shaped active site in the C-terminal domain. Further studies suggest that Fe 3+ bound in the BphC-SD3 active site probably imparts aerobic stability. We further demonstrate the potential application of BphC-SD3 in biosensing of catecholic compounds. The halotolerant and oxygen-resistant properties of these enzymes reported in this study make them potential candidates for bioremediation and biosensing applications. IMPORTANCE The disposal and degradation of xenobiotic compounds have been serious issues due to their recalcitrant properties. Microbial oxygenases are the fundamental enzymes involved in biodegradation that oxidize the substrate by transferring oxygen from molecular oxygen. Among oxygenases, catechol dioxygenases are more versatile in biodegradation and are well studied among the bacterial world. The use of catechol dioxygenases in the field is currently not practical due to their aerobically unstable nature. The significance of our research lies in the discovery of aerobically stable and halotolerant catechol dioxygenases that are efficient in degrading the targeted environmental pollutants and, hence, could be used as cost-effective alternatives for the treatment of hypersaline industrial effluents. Moreover, the structural determination of novel catechol dioxygenases would greatly enhance our knowledge of the function of these enzymes and facilitate directed evolution to further enhance or engineer desired properties., (Copyright © 2019 Sidhu et al.)

An exopolysaccharide producing strain AK103 T was isolated from Sambharlake, Rajasthan, India. Based on polyphasic taxonomy, the strain AK103 T was found to be a novel species for which the name Natronotalea sambharensis sp. nov. is proposed. The strain was able to secrete (1.2 gL -1 ) EPS under optimum conditions. The FT-IR spectroscopy revealed that EPS had carboxyl, hydroxyl, carbonyl and sulfate ester groups. The high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and NMR revealed that the exopolysaccharide was composed of mannose, glucose and glucuronic acid with a molecular weight of 4.6 × 10 6 KDa. This novel EPS was designated as Nat-103. Interestingly, the EPS was found to have antioxidant activity and in vitro antioxidant studies showed that DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) activity increased in a dose dependent manner. Furthermore, EPS Nat-103 was able to produce gold nanoparticles which were further characterized by FT-IR, DLS and Zeta potential (ZP)., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

There is a significant increase in the discovery of new antimicrobial compounds in recent past to combat drug resistant pathogens. Members of the genus Bacillus and related genera have been screened extensively due to their ability to produce wide range of antimicrobial compounds. In this study, we have isolated and characterized a new antimicrobial peptide from a marine bacterium identified as Virgibacillus species. The low molecular mass and stability of the antimicrobial substance pointed towards the bacteriocinogenic nature of the compound. The RAST analysis of genome sequence showed presence of a putative bacteriocin biosynthetic cluster containing genes necessary for synthesis of a lanthipeptide. Translated amino acid sequence of mature C-terminal propeptide showed identity with salivaricin A (52.2%) and lacticin A (33.3%). Accordingly, the mass (2417 Da) obtained by MALDI analysis was in agreement with posttranslational modifications of the leader peptide to yield three methyl lanthionine rings and a disulfide bond between two free cysteine residues. The lanthipeptide was named as virgicin, which selectively inhibited the growth of Gram-positive bacteria and biofilm formation by Enterococcus faecalis. Inhibition of biofilm formation by E. faecalis was also observed in in vitro model experiments using hydroxyapatite discs. Thus, virgicin appears to be a promising new bacteriocin to control oral biofilm formation by selective pathogens.

Antibiotic-resistance is ever growing burden on our society for the past many years. Many synthetic chemistry approaches and rational drug-design have been unable to pace up and tackle this problem. Natural resources, more specifically, the microbial diversity, on the other hand, make a traditional and still the best platform to search for new chemical scaffolds and compounds. Here, we report the antimicrobial characteristics of novel bacterial isolate from a salt lake in India. We screened the bacterial isolates for their inhibitory activity against indicator bacteria and found that four novel species were able to prevent the growth of test strains studied in vitro. Further, we characterized one novel species (SMB1 T  = SL4-2) using polyphasic taxonomic approaches and also purified the active ingredient from this bacterium. We successfully characterized the antimicrobial compound using mass spectroscopy and amino acid analysis. We also allocated two novel biosynthetic gene clusters for putative bacteriocins and one novel non-ribosomal peptide gene cluster in its whole genome. We concluded that the strain SMB1 T belonged to the genus Paenibacilllus with the pairwise sequence similarity of 98.67% with Paenibacillus tarimensis DSM 19409 T and we proposed the name Paenibacillus sambharensis sp. nov. The type strain is SMB1 T (=MTCC 12884 = KCTC 33895 T ).

Natural evolution in microbes exposed to antibiotics causes inevitable selection of resistant mutants. This turns out to be a vicious cycle which requires the continuous discovery of new and effective antibiotics. For the last six decades, we have been relying on semisynthetic derivatives of natural products discovered in "Golden Era" from microbes, especially Streptomyces sp. Low success rates of rational drug-design sparked a resurgence in the invention of novel natural products or scaffolds from untapped or uncommon microbial niches. Therefore, in this study, we examined the microbial diversity inhabiting the yak milk for their ability to produce antimicrobial compounds. We prepared the crude fermentation extracts of fifty isolates from yak milk and screened them against indicator strains for the inhibitory activity. Later, with the aid of gel filtration chromatography followed by reversed-phase HPLC, we isolated one antimicrobial compound Y5-P1 from the strain Y5 ( Pseudomonas koreensis ) which showed bioactivity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The compound was chemically characterized using HRMS, FTIR, and NMR spectroscopy and identified as 1-acetyl-9H-β-carboline-3-carboxylic acid. It showed minimum inhibitory activity (MIC) in the range of 62.5-250 μg /ml. The cytotoxicity results revealed that IC 50 against two mammalian cell lines i.e., HepG2 and HEK293T was 500 and 750 μg/ml, respectively. This is the first report on the production of this derivative of β-carboline by the microorganism. Also, the study enlightens the importance of microbes residing in uncommon environments or unexplored habitats in the discovery of a diverse array of natural products which could be designed further as drug candidates against highly resistant pathogens.

A novel Gram-stain-negative, curved rod-shaped, 0.5-0.7 µm wide and 3.0-10.0 µm long, non-motile bacterium, designated strain AK53 T , was isolated from a 5 m depth water sample collected from the Bay of Bengal, Visakhapatnam, India. Colonies on marine agar were circular, small, dark orange, shiny, smooth, translucent, flat, with an entire margin. The major fatty acids included iso-C 15 : 0 , iso-C 15 : 0 3OH, anteiso-C 15 : 0 , iso-C 15 : 1 G, iso-C 17 : 0 3OH and summed feature 3 (C 16 : 1  ω 7 c and/or C 16 : 1  ω 6 c and/or iso-C 15 : 0 -2OH). Polar lipids included phosphatidylethanolamine and five unidentified lipids. The DNA G+C content of the strain AK53 T was found to be 40.8 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain AK53 T was closely related to Arenibacter latericius KMM 426 T and Arenibacter certesii KMM3941 T (pair-wise sequence similarity of 99.17 and 98.89 %, respectively), forming a distinct branch within the genus Arenibacter and clustering with A. latericius . Strain AK53 T shared average nucleotide identity (ANIb, based on blast) of 78.07 and 77.44 % with A. latericius JCM 13508 T and A. certesii JCM 13507 T , respectively. Based on the observed phenotypic, chemotaxonomic characteristics and phylogenetic analysis, strain AK53 T is described in this study as representing a novel species in the genus Arenibacter , for which the name Arenibacter amylolyticus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Arenibacter amylolyticus is AK53 T (=MTCC 12004 T = JCM 19206 T =KCTC 62553 T ).

A curved-rod-shaped bacterium was isolated from a marine (100 m depth) water sample collected from Bay of Bengal, Visakhapatnam, India. Strain NIO-S14 T , was Gram-stain-negative, motile and pale-yellow. NIO-S14 T was able to grow aerobically and anaerobically and could utilize a number of organic substrates. Major fatty acids were C12 : 0, iso-C13 : 0, C14 : 0, iso-C15 : 0, C16 : 0 and C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c (summed feature 3). NIO-S14 T contained diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, two unidentified aminophospholipids and six unidentified lipids as polar lipids. The DNA G+C content of NIO-S14 T was 47.9 mol%. The 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons indicated that the isolate represented a member of the family Shewanellaceae within the class Gammaproteobacteria. According to the results of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, NIO-S14 T was closely related to Shewanella coralliiwith a pair-wise sequence similarity of 99.26 %. On the basis of the sequence comparison, NIO-S14 T clustered with Shewanella coralliiand together they clustered with Shewanella mangroviand seven other species of the genus Shewanella but were distantly related. DNA-DNA hybridization between NIO-S14 T and Shewanella corallii DSM 21332 T revealed a relatedness of 35 %. Distinct morphological, physiological and genotypic differences from these previously described taxa supported the classification of NIO-S14 T as a representative of a novel species of the genus Shewanella, for which the name Shewanellasubmarina sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Shewanellasubmarina is NIO-S14 T (=MTCC 12524 T =KCTC 52277 T =LMG 30752 T ).

A strictly aerobic, haloalkali-tolerant, Gram-stain-positive, non-motile, rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain SMB4 T , was isolated from a water sample collected from Sambhar salt lake, Rajasthan, India. Growth occurred at 25-50 °C, 4-12 % (w/v) NaCl and pH of 5-9. Strain SMB4 T was positive for β-galactosidase, oxidase, catalase and urease activities. The fatty acids were dominated by branched forms of fatty acids with iso- and anteiso-saturated fatty acids, with a high abundance of anteiso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C17 : 0 and C18 : 0. The cell-wall peptidoglycan of strain SMB4 T contained meso-diaminopimelic acid, while the polar lipids included diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, one unidentified phospholipid and three unidentified lipids. The DNA G+C content of strain SMB4 T was 49.1 mol%. A blast sequence similarity search based on 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that Salibacterium halochares, Salibacterium halotolerans and Salibacterium qingdaonense were the nearest phylogenetic neighbours, with a pair-wise sequence similarities of 98.4, 98.2 and 97.0 % respectively. Phylogenetic analysis showed that strain SMB4 T was clustered with S. halochares and together clustered with S. halotolerans and S. qingdaonense. DNA-DNA hybridization of strain SMB4 T with S. halochares DSM 21373 T , S. halotolerans S7 T and S. quigdaonense DSM 21621 T showed a relatedness values of only 39.8, 26.3 and 42.8 %, respectively. Based on its phenotypic characteristics and on phylogenetic inference, strain SMB4 T represents a novel species of the genus Salibacterium, for which the name Salibacterium nitratireducens sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SMB4 T (=MTCC 12633 T =KCTC 33876 T =JCM 32187 T ).

A novel Gram-stain-positive, rod-shaped, motile, spore-forming, strictly aerobic, alkali- and halo- tolerant bacterium, designated strain AK72 T , was isolated from a water sample collected from Sambhar salt lake, Rajasthan, India. The colony appears circular, shiny, smooth, translucent or slightly pale in colour and convex with an entire margin after 48 h incubation at 37 °C with pH 9. Growth of the bacterium occurred at 10-42 °C (optimum, 25-37 °C), at salinities of 0.5-10 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum 3-5 % NaCl) and pH of 6-10 (optimum pH 9). Strain AK72 T was positive for oxidase, catalase, nitrate reductase, phenylalanine deaminase, ornithine decarboxylase, aesculinase, lipase and urease activities. The predominant fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C15 : 0 and iso-C16 : 0 and the cell-wall peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. The major polar lipids of the strain were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, an unidentified aminophospholipid, three unidentified phospholipids and three unidentified lipids. The genomic DNA G+C content of the strain AK72 T was 36.8 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain AK72 T was closely related to Bacillus cellulosilyticus (96.5 %) and Bacillus vedderi (96.3 %), but the novel strain AK72 T formed a separate clade with Bacillus aurantiacus whereas B. cellulosilyticus and B. vedderi were clustered in a separate clade. The above data in combination with the phenotypic characteristics and phylogenetic data inferred that strain AK72 T represents a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillusshivajii sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is AK72 T (=MTCC 12636 T =KCTC 33981 T =JCM 32183 T ).

Aim: Here, we evaluated any beneficial effects of a potential probiotic bacterial strain (Lactobacillus plantarum MTCC 9510) in two different stress paradigms in mice., Methods and Results: Lactobacillus plantarum MTCC 9510 (2 × 10 10 CFU per mice) was supplemented to male Swiss albino mice either subjected to chronic unpredictable mild stress or sleep deprivation (SD) stress. Various behavioural and biochemical tests along with selected gut bacterial abundances were determined. Lactobacillus plantarum MTCC 9510 supplementation prevented stress-induced behavioural despair (depression, anxiety, learning and memory, stereotypic behaviour), oxidative stress markers and inflammatory cytokines in brain and serum. Its supplementation also improved gut and blood brain barrier integrity. It also affected caecal short-chain fatty acids along with the promotion of Lactobacillus sp. and reduction in Enterobacteriaceae abundances. We also observed that two different stresses variably affected various behavioural and biochemical changes but L. plantarum MTCC 9510 supplementation most effectively prevented all these changes., Conclusion: We provide evidence that positive modulation of the selected beneficial gut microbial population could serve as a viable strategy to neutralize day-to-day and SD stress-induced pathological alterations., Significance and Impact of the Study: Therapeutic potential of this/other probiotic strains in tackling the deleterious neurobiological effects on exposure to various stress-related conditions can be explored., (© 2018 The Society for Applied Microbiology.)

An aerobic, endospore-forming, haloalkali-tolerant, Gram-stain-positive, motile, rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain AK73 T , was isolated from a sediment sample collected from Sambhar lake, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. Colonies were circular, 1-2 mm in diameter, glossy, smooth, yellowish and convex with an entire margin after 48 h growth on marine agar at pH 9 and 37 °C. Growth occurred at 15-42 °C, 0-10 % (w/v) NaCl and at a pH range of 7-12. Strain AK73 T was positive for catalase and arginine dihydrolase 2 activities, hydrolysis of Tweens 20, 40 and 80, and negative for esculinase, caseinase, gelatinase, β-galactosidase, lipase (Tween 60) and urease activities. The fatty acids were dominated by branched iso-, anteiso-, saturated fatty acids with a high abundance of iso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C15 : 0, C16 : 0 and anteiso-C17 : 0; MK-7 was the major menaquinone. The cell-wall peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. The polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, one unidentified aminophospholipid, four unidentified phospholipids and three unidentified lipids. The DNA G+C content of strain AK73 T was 54 mol%. Analysis based on comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that Bacillus alcalophilus was the nearest phylogenetic neighbour, with a pair-wise sequence similarity of 96.0 %. Phylogenetic analysis showed that strain AK73 T formed a separate lineage but was loosely associated with a peripheral cluster of organisms that contained Bacillus gibsonii, Bacillus murimartini and Bacillus plakortidis with similarity values of 93.6, 93.5 and 93.4 %, respectively. Based on its phenotypic characteristics and on phylogenetic inference, strain AK73 T represents a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus alkalilacus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is AK73 T (=JCM 32184 T =MTCC 12637 T =KCTC 33880 T ).

A strictly aerobic, alkaliphilic, Gram-stain-positive, motile, rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain AK74 T , was isolated from a water sample collected from Sambhar salt lake, Rajasthan, India. Colonies were circular, 1.2 mm in diameter, shiny, smooth, whitish and convex with an entire margin after 48 h growth at 37 °C with pH 9.0. Growth occurred at 25-42 °C, 0-4 % (w/v) NaCl and at a pH of 7-12. Strain AK74 T was positive for aesculinase, caseinase, lipase activities and negative for oxidase, catalase, amylase, cellulase, DNase, gelatinase and urease activities. The fatty acids were dominated by branched iso-, anteiso- and saturated fatty acids with a high abundance of iso-C 15 : 0 , anteiso-C 15 : 0 , C 16 : 0 and C 16 : 1 and the cell-wall peptidoglycan contained meso -diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. The DNA G+C content of strain AK74 T was 51.6 mol%. A blast sequence similarity search based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that Bacillus niabensis , Bacillus idriensis and Bacillus halosaccharovorans were the nearest phylogenetic neighbours, with a pair-wise sequence similarities of 96.6, 96.6 and 96.5%, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis showed that strain AK74 T clustered with Bacillus mangrove and together clustered with Bacillus idriensis and Bacillus indicus . Based on its phenotypic characteristics and on phylogenetic inference, strain AK74 T represents a novel species of the genus Bacillus , for which the name Bacilluslacus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is AK74 T (=MTCC 12638 T =KCTC 33946 T =JCM 32185 T ).

A novel Gram-negative, rod shaped, non-motile bacterium, designated strain YK2 T , was isolated from yak milk from Leh, India. The strain was positive for oxidase- and catalase-activities and negative for starch hydrolysis, nitrate reduction, citrate utilization, urease, lysine decarboxylase and ornithine decarboxylase activities. The predominant fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0, iso-C17 : 0 3-OH, iso-C17 : 1ω9c and C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c and/or iso-C15 : 0 2-OH (summed feature 3). The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, one unidentified aminophospholipid and six unidentified lipids. The DNA G+C content of the strain was 38.9 mol%. The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that strain YK2 T was a member of the genus Sphingobacterium and closely related to Sphingobacterium alimentarium and Sphingobacterium composti with pair-wise sequence similarity of 98.3 and 97.9 %, respectively. The sequence similarity to other members of the genus Sphingobacterium was between 92.6 to 96.3 %. Phylogenetic analysis showed that strain YK2 T clustered with Sphingobacterium alimentarium and together clustered with Sphingobacterium composti. DNA-DNA hybridization of strain YK2 T with Sphingobacterium alimentarium WCC 4521 T and Sphingobacterium composti T5-12 T showed a relatedness of only 38 and 54 %, respectively. Based on the phenotypic characteristics and on phylogenetic inference, it appears that strain YK2 T represents a novel species of the genus Sphingobacterium, for which the name Sphingobacterium bovisgrunnientis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Sphingobacterium bovisgrunnientis sp. nov. is YK2 T (=MTCC 12631 T =KCTC 52685 T =JCM 31951 T ).

Probiotic industries strive for new, efficient and promising probiotic strains that impart a positive impact on consumer health. Challenges are persisting in isolation, screening, and selection of the new indigenous probiotic strains. In the present research, we explored the probiotic potential of 17 lactic acid bacteria isolated from Yak milk in a series of in vitro tests. We also demonstrated their health benefits, i.e., cholesterol degradation, lactose digestion, antimicrobial activity, antioxidant, and anticancer activities. Principal component analysis revealed that more than 50% of the strains fulfilled the examined criteria, e.g., survival in acidic pH, bile concentrations, and adherent property. Approximately all the strains produced antimicrobial substances against the maximum number of tested strains including clinical strains. Most strains degraded cholesterol in comparison to the reference probiotic strain whereas strain Yc showed 1.5 times higher the degradation efficiency of the control strain. Lan4 strain exhibited remarkable anticancer activity and induced the maximum apoptosis (87%) in the Hela cells and was non-toxic to the non-cancerous HEK293 cells. Around ten strains showed positive lactose digestion. Overall, this can be concluded that selected lactic acid bacteria revealed excellent probiotic properties along with desirable health benefits. These strains need to be further investigated in details for their application in the development of novel probiotic preparations for the improvement of public health.

A novel Gram-staining-negative, spiral-shaped, pale-yellow, non-sporulating, motile, aerobic bacterium, designated strain AK56T, was isolated from a sediment sample collected at the Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary, India. Colonies on marine agar were circular, pale yellow, shiny, translucent, 1-2 mm in diameter, convex and had an entire margin. The major fatty acids included C16 : 1, C16 : 1ω7c/C16 : 1ω6c and C18 : 1ω7c. Polar lipids included diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, two unidentified aminolipids, one unidentified phospholipid and five unidentified lipids. DNA-DNA hybridization between strain AK56T and Oceanospirillum linum LMG 5214T and 'Oceanospirillum nioense ' NIO-S6 showed relatedness values of 39.91 and 23.62 %, respectively. The DNA G+C content of strain AK56T was found to be 50.3 mol%. A sequence similarity search for the 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that O. linum and O. nioense were the nearest phylogenetic neighbours, with a pair-wise sequence similarity of 98.9 and 98.2 %, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis also showed the formation of a cluster including strain AK56T with close relative O. linum and O. nioense. Based on the observed phenotypic, chemotaxonomic characteristics and phylogenetic analysis, strain AK56T is described in this study as a novel species in the genus Oceanospirillum, for which the name Oceanospirillum sanctuarii sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Oceanospirillumsanctuarii is AK56T (=MTCC 12005T=JCM 19193T=KCTC 52973T).

Sewage waste represents an ecosystem of complex and interactive microbial consortia which proliferate with different kinetics according to their individual genetic as well as metabolic potential. We performed metagenomic shotgun sequencing on Ion-Torrent platform, to explore the microbial community structure, their biological interactions and associated functional capacity of pre-treated/raw sludge (RS) and post-treated/dried sludge (DS) of wastewater treatment plant. Bacterial phylotypes belonging to Epsilonproteobacteria (∼45.80%) dominated the RS with relatively few Archaea (∼1.94%) whereas DS has the dominance of beta - (30.23%) and delta - (13.38%) classes of Proteobacteria with relatively greater abundance of Archaea (∼7.18%). In particular, Epsilonproteobacteria appears as a primary energy source in RS and sulfur-reducing bacteria with methanogens seems to be in the potential syntrophic association in DS. These interactions could be ultimately responsible for carrying out amino-acid degradation, aromatic compound degradation and degradation of propionate and butyrate in DS. Our data also reveal the presence of key genes in the sludge microbial community responsible for degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Potential pathogenic microbes and genes for the virulence factors were found to be relatively abundant in RS which clearly reflect the necessity of treatment of RS. After treatment, potential pathogens load was reduced, indicating the sludge hygienisation in DS. Additionally, the interactions found in this study would reveal the biological and environmental cooperation among microbial communities for domestic wastewater treatment.

A facultatively anaerobic, endospore forming, alkali-tolerant, Gram-stain-positive, motile, rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain AK61T, was isolated from a sediment sample collected from Coringa mangrove forest, India. Colonies were circular, 1.5 mm in diameter, shiny, smooth, yellowish and convex with entire margins after 48 h growth at 30 °C. Growth occurred at 15-42 °C, with 0-3 % (w/v) NaCl and at pH 6-9. AK61T was positive for amylase activity and negative for oxidase, catalase, aesculinase, caseinase, cellulase, DNase, gelatinase, lipase and urease activities. The fatty acids were dominated by branched types with iso- and anteiso- saturated fatty acids with a high abundance of iso-C14 : 0, iso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C15 : 0 and iso-C16 : 0; the cell-wall peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid; and MK-7 was the major menaquinone. DNA-DNA hybridization between AK61T and Bacillus indicus MTCC 4374T and between AK61T and Bacillus indicus KCTC 3880 showed relatedness of 37.99 and 33.32 % respectively. The DNA G+C content of AK61T was 44 mol%. The results of a blast sequence similarity search based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that Bacillus cibi and Bacillus indicus were the nearest phylogenetic neighbours, with a pair-wise sequence similarity of 97.69 and 97.55 % respectively. The results of phylogenetic analysis indicated that AK61T was clustered with Bacillus idriensis and Bacillus indicus. On the basis of its phenotypic characteristics and phylogenetic inference, AK61T represents a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus mangrovi sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is AK61T (=JCM 31087T=MTCC 12015T=KCTC 33872T).

A coccoid-shaped phototrophic purple sulfur bacterium, strain AK35T, was isolated from a coastal surface water sample collected from Visakhapatnam, India. Cells were Gram-stain-negative, motile and purple, containing bacteriochlorophyll a and the carotenoid rhodopinal as major photosynthetic pigments. Strain AK35T was able to grow photoheterotrophically and could utilize a number of organic substrates. It was unable to grow photoautotrophically. Strain AK35T was able to utilize sulfide and thiosulfate as electron donors. The main fatty acids present were identified as C16 : 0, C18 : 1ω7c, and C16 : 1ω7c and/or iso-C15 : 0 2OH (summed feature 3). Strain AK35T contained diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and six unidentified lipids as polar lipids. The G+C content of the DNA of strain AK35T was 63.1 mol%. 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons indicated that the isolate represented a member of the family Chromatiaceae. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that strain AK35T is phylogenetically distinctly positioned outside the groups of most members of the genus Thiorhodococcus, clustered with members of the genera Marichromatium and Phaeochromatium, but was most closely related to Thiorhodococcus bheemlicus with a pairwise sequence similarity of 98.75 %. Based on DNA-DNA hybridization between strain AK35T and Thiorhodococcus bheemlicus MTCC 8120T a relatedness of 39.46 % was established. Distinct morphological, physiological and genotypic differences from these previously described taxa supported the classification of the new isolate as a representative of a novel species in a new genus, for which the name Imhoffiella purpurea gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Imhoffiella purpurea is AK35T (=JCM 18851T=KCTC 15575T=MTCC 12304T). In addition, Thiorhodococcus bheemlicus is recognized as another species of this genus and transferred to Imhoffiella bheemlica comb. nov.

A moderately thermophilic Gram-negative bacterium isolated from the Polok hot spring, Sikkim, India, was identified as a strain (PL17) of Tepidimonas fonticaldi by 16S rDNA sequencing. T. fonticaldi PL17 produces a Type IIP restriction endonuclease; named TfoI. Restriction mapping, run-off sequencing of TfoI-digests of dsDNA fragments, and end compatibility of TfoI with NdeI confirmed that the enzyme recognizes and cleaves the sequence 5'-T^TAA-3', and is thus an isoschizomer of MseI. The TfoI restriction-modification genes in the T. fonticaldi PL17 genome were identified, and the annotated TfoI protein encodes a protein of 181 amino acid residues that shares 47.2% sequence identity with MseI. The native enzyme was purified using a four-column chromatography protocol, and its functional homogeneity was confirmed by standard quality control tests. The ESI-MS measured molecular weight of purified TfoI (20.696 kDa) is in agreement with that of the calculated monomeric molecular weight of the predicted TfoI protein sequence (20.694 kDa). TfoI exhibits optimal activity in the temperature range of 55-70 °C with Mg +2 or Co +2 as cofactor. Similar to its isoschizomers, TfoI can be used as the frequent cutter for genome analysis.

Background: Carotenoids have important functions in bacteria, ranging from harvesting light energy to neutralizing oxidants and acting as virulence factors. However, information pertaining to the carotenoids is scattered throughout the literature. Furthermore, information about the genes/proteins involved in the biosynthesis of carotenoids has tremendously increased in the post-genomic era. A web server providing the information about microbial carotenoids in a structured manner is required and will be a valuable resource for the scientific community working with microbial carotenoids., Results: Here, we have created a manually curated, open access, comprehensive compilation of bacterial carotenoids named as ProCarDB- Prokaryotic Carotenoid Database. ProCarDB includes 304 unique carotenoids arising from 50 biosynthetic pathways distributed among 611 prokaryotes. ProCarDB provides important information on carotenoids, such as 2D and 3D structures, molecular weight, molecular formula, SMILES, InChI, InChIKey, IUPAC name, KEGG Id, PubChem Id, and ChEBI Id. The database also provides NMR data, UV-vis absorption data, IR data, MS data and HPLC data that play key roles in the identification of carotenoids. An important feature of this database is the extension of biosynthetic pathways from the literature and through the presence of the genes/enzymes in different organisms. The information contained in the database was mined from published literature and databases such as KEGG, PubChem, ChEBI, LipidBank, LPSN, and Uniprot. The database integrates user-friendly browsing and searching with carotenoid analysis tools to help the user. We believe that this database will serve as a major information centre for researchers working on bacterial carotenoids.

The novel, cream coloured, Gram-negative-staining, rod-shaped, motile bacteria, designated strains AK23(T) and AK28, were isolated from sediment samples collected from Lonar Lake, Buldhana district, India. The predominant fatty acids were C18:1ω7c, C16:0, C10:0 3OH and C16:1ω7c and/or iso-C15:0 2OH (summed feature 3). Polar lipid content of strains AK23(T) and AK28 were found to be phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylglycerol (PG), phosphotidylserine (PS), one unidentified phospholipid (PL) and two unidentified lipids (L1 and L2). The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated strains AK23(T) and AK28 as the members of the genus Nitrincola and closely related to the type strain Nitrincola lacisaponensis with pair-wise sequence similarity of 97.67% and 97.62% respectively. DNA-DNA hybridization between strain AK23(T) and AK28 showed a relatedness of 91%. Genome of strains AK23(T) and N. lacisaponensis DSM 16316(T) were sequenced. A comparative genomics approach was used to study strains AK23(T), N. lacisaponensis DSM 16316(T) and five other phylogenetic neighbours. The genome size of N. lacisaponensis DSM 16316(T) was found to be 614,784bp smaller than that of the strain AK23(T). This variation could be due to multiple reasons, gene uptake, evolution, mutation, genome reduction phenomenon and draft nature of sequencing. Based on data from the current polyphasic study, strains AK23(T) and AK28 are proposed as novel species of the genus Nitrincola, for which the name Nitrincola nitratireducens sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of N. nitratireducens is AK23(T) (=JCM 18788(T)=MTCC 11628(T))., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

A Gram-stain-positive, non-motile and aerobic bacterium, designated strain DW151BT, was isolated from a sludge sample of a dairy industry effluent treatment plant. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis of strain DW151BT placed it within the genus Rhodococcus. It displayed significant similarity with recognized species of the genus: Rhodococcus pyridinivorans PDB9T (98.8 %), Rhodococcus gordoniae W 4937T (98.6 %), Rhodococcus rhodochrous DSM 43241T (98.5 %) and Rhodococcus artemisiae YIM 65754T (97.5 %). However, strain DW151BT differed from phylogenetically closely related species in various phenotypic properties. The cellular polar lipid profile consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and phosphatidylinositol (PI) as major lipids, MK-8(H2) was the major menaquinone and meso-diaminopimelic acid was the cell-wall peptidoglycan. The fatty acid profile consisted of C16 : 0, C18 : 1cis9 and C16 : 1cis9 as main components. The presence of C16 : 0 and diphosphatidylglycerol as major fatty acid and polar lipid, respectively, was in accordance with chemotaxonomic markers of the genus Rhodococcus. The DNA G+C content of strain DW151BT was 69.9 mol%, a value within the limits reported for the members of this genus. Furthermore, strain DW151BT showed low similarity at the whole genome level in DNA-DNA hybridization experiments with phylogenetically closely related strains. Considering the low similarity at the genome level and differences in phenotypic properties, strain DW151BT is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Rhodococcus, for which the name Rhodococcus lactis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is DW151BT ( = MTCC 12279T = DSM 45625T).

A novel brown-coloured, Gram-negative-staining, rod-shaped, motile, phototrophic, purple sulfur bacterium, designated strain AK40T, was isolated in pure culture from a sediment sample collected from Coringa mangrove forest, India. Strain AK40T contained bacteriochlorophyll a and carotenoids of the rhodopin series as major photosynthetic pigments. Strain AK40T was able to grow photoheterotrophically and could utilize a number of organic substrates. It was unable to grow photoautotrophically and did not utilize sulfide or thiosulfate as electron donors. Thiamine and riboflavin were required for growth. The dominant fatty acids were C12 : 0, C16 : 0, C18 : 1ω7c and summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or iso-C15 : 0 2-OH). The polar lipid profile of strain AK40T was found to contain diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and eight unidentified lipids. Q-10 was the predominant respiratory quinone. The DNA G+C content of strain AK40T was 65.5 mol%. 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons indicated that the isolate represented a member of the family Chromatiaceae within the class Gammaproteobacteria. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that strain AK40T was closely related to Phaeochromatium fluminis, with 95.2% pairwise sequence similarity to the type strain; sequence similarity to strains of other species of the family was 90.8-94.8%. Based on the sequence comparison data, strain AK40T was positioned distinctly outside the group formed by the genera Phaeochromatium, Marichromatium, Halochromatium, Thiohalocapsa, Rhabdochromatium and Thiorhodovibrio. Distinct morphological, physiological and genotypic differences from previously described taxa supported the classification of this isolate as a representative of a novel species in a new genus, for which the name Phaeobacterium nitratireducens gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Phaeobacterium nitratireducens is AK40T ( = JCM 19219T = MTCC 11824T).

A novel Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped, motile bacterium, designated strain AK21(T), was isolated from coastal surface sea water at Visakhapatnam, India. The strain was positive for oxidase, catalase, lipase, L-proline arylamidase and tyrosine arylamidase activities. The predominant fatty acids were C12:0, C12:0 3-OH, C16:0, C16:1ω9c, C18:1ω9c and summed feature 3 (C16:1ω7c and/or iso-C15:0 2-OH). The polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, one unidentified aminophospholipid, two unidentified phospholipids and one unidentified lipid. Q-10 was the predominant respiratory quinone. The DNA G+C content of the strain was 54.6 mol%. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that strain AK21(T) was a member of the genus Marinobacter and was closely related to Marinobacter xestospongiae, with pairwise sequence similarity of 97.2% to the type strain, with similarity to other members of the genus of 94.0-96.8%. The mean DNA-DNA relatedness of strain AK21(T) with M. xestospongiae JCM 17469(T) was 34.5%, and relatedness with Marinobacter mobilis JCM 15154(T) was 40.5%. Phylogenetic analysis showed that strain AK21(T) clustered with the type strains of M. xestospongiae and M. mobilis at distances of 2.9 and 2.8% (97.1 and 97.2% similarity), respectively. Based on the phenotypic characteristics and on phylogenetic inference, it appears that strain AK21(T) represents a novel species of the genus Marinobacter, for which the name Marinobacter nitratireducens sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Marinobacter nitratireducens is AK21(T) ( = MTCC 11704(T ) = JCM 18428(T)).

The 4.3-Mb genome of Lutibaculum baratangense strain AMV1(T), isolated from a soil sample collected from a mud volcano in Andamans, India, is reported. The draft genome of strain Lutibaculum baratangense AMV1(T) consists of 4,300,776 bp with a G+C content of 66.93 mol% and 4,198 predicted coding regions, including 56 RNAs., (Copyright © 2014 Singh et al.)

The present study demonstrates exopolysaccharide production by an osmotolerant marine isolate and also describes further application of the purified polysaccharide for production of colloidal suspension of silver nanoparticles with narrow size distribution. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S r RNA gene sequencing revealed close affinity of the isolate to Alteromonas macleodii. Unlike earlier reports, where glucose was used as the carbon source, lactose was found to be the most suitable substrate for polysaccharide production. The strain was capable of producing 23.4 gl(-1) exopolysaccharide with a productivity of 7.8 gl(-1) day(-1) when 15% (w/v) lactose was used as carbon source. Furthermore, the purified polysaccharide was able to produce spherical shaped silver nanoparticles of around 70 nm size as characterized by Uv-vis spectroscopy, Dynamic light scattering and Transmission electron microscopy. These observations suggested possible commercial potential of the isolated strain for production of a polysaccharide which has the capability of synthesizing biocompatible metal nanoparticle.

Grimontia indica strain AK16(T) sp. nov. is the type strain of G. indica sp. nov. a new species within the genus Grimontia. This strain, whose genome is described here, was isolated from seawater sample collected from southeast coast of Palk Bay, India. G. indica AK16(T) is a Gram-negative, facultative aerobic rod shaped bacterium. There are only two other strains in the genus Grimontia one of which, Grimontia hollisae CIP 101886(T), is a reported human pathogen isolated from human stool sample while the other, 'Grimontia marina IMCC5001(T)', was isolated from a seawater sample. As compared to the pathogenic strain Grimontia hollisae CIP 101886(T), the strain AK16(T) lacks some genes for pathogenesis like the accessory colonization factors AcfA and AcfD, which are required for the colonization of the bacterium in the host body. While it carries some pathogenesis genes like OmpU, which are related to pathogenesis of Vibrio strains. This suggests that the life cycle of AK16(T) may include some pathogenic interactions with marine animal(s), or it may be an opportunistic pathogen. Study of the Grimontia genus is important because of the severe pathogenic traits exhibited by a member of the genus with only three species reported in total. The study will provide some vital information which may be useful in future clinical studies on the genus.

Background: Increasing multidrug-resistance in bacteria resulted in a greater need to find alternative antimicrobial substances that can be used for clinical applications or preservation of food and dairy products. Research on antimicrobial peptides including lipopeptides exhibiting both narrow and broad spectrum inhibition activities is increasing in the recent past. Therefore, the present study was aimed at isolation and characterization of antimicrobial lipopeptide producing bacterial strains from fecal contaminated soil sample., Results: The phenotypic and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis of all isolates identified them as different species of Gram-negative genera Citrobacter and Enterobacter. They exhibited common phenotypic traits like citrate utilization, oxidase negative and facultative anaerobic growth. The HPLC analysis of solvent extracts obtained from cell free fermented broth revealed the presence of multiple antimicrobial lipopeptides. The comprehensive mass spectral analysis (MALDI-TOF MS and GC-MS) of HPLC purified fractions of different isolates revealed that the lipopeptides varied in their molecular weight between (m/z) 607.21 to 1536.16 Da. Isomers of mass ion m/z 984/985 Da was produced by all strains. The 1495 Da lipopeptides produced by strains S-3 and S-11 were fengycin analogues and most active against all strains. While amino acid analysis of lipopeptides suggested most of them had similar composition as in iturins, fengycins, kurstakins and surfactins, differences in their β-hydroxy fatty acid content proposed them to be isoforms of these lipopeptides., Conclusion: Although antimicrobial producing strains can be used as biocontrol agents in food preservation, strains with ability to produce multiple antimicrobial lipopeptides have potential applications in biotechnology sectors such as pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry. This is the first report on antibacterial lipopeptides production by strains of Citrobacter and Enterobacter.

We report the 4.39-Mb draft genome sequence of the 2-chloro-4-nitrophenol-degrading bacterium Arthrobacter sp. strain SJCon, isolated from a pesticide-contaminated site. The draft genome sequence of strain SJCon will be helpful in studying the genetic pathways involved in the degradation of several aromatic compounds.

A novel marine, Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain N9(T), was isolated from a water sample of the sea shore at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh (India). Strain N9(T) was found to be positive for oxidase and catalase activities. The fatty acids were found to be dominated by C(16:0), C(18:1) ω7c and summed in feature 3 (C(16:1) ω7c and/or C(16:1) ω6c). Strain N9(T) was determined to contain Q-10 as the major respiratory quinone and phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, two aminophospholipids, two phospholipids and four unidentified lipids as polar lipids. The DNA G+C content of the strain N9(T) was found to be 63 mol%. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that Rhodobacter sphaeroides, Rhodobacter johrii, Pseudorhodobacter ferrugineus, Rhodobacter azotoformans, Rhodobacter ovatus and Pseudorhodobacter aquimaris were the nearest phylogenetic neighbours, with pair-wise sequence similarities of 95.43, 95.36, 94.24, 95.31, 95.60 and 94.74 %, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis showed that strain N9(T) formed a distinct branch within the family Rhodobacteraceae and clustered with the clade comprising species of the genus Pseudorhodobacter, together with species of the genera Roseicitreum, Roseinatronobacter, Roseibaca and Rhodobaca. Species of the genus Pseudorhodobacter are phylogenetically close with a 16S rRNA gene sequence dissimilarity of 5.9-7.3 % (92.7-94.1 % similarity). Based on the above-mentioned phenotypic characteristics and on phylogenetic inference, strain N9(T) is proposed as a representative of a new genus and a novel species of the family Rhodobacteraceae as Albirhodobacter marinus gen. nov., sp. nov. The type strain of Albirhodobacter marinus is N9 (= MTCC 11277(T) = JCM 17680(T)).

A bacterial strain producing two antimicrobial peptides was isolated from a rhizosphere soil sample and identified as Bacillus subtilis based on both phenotypic and 16S rRNA gene sequence phylogenetic analysis. It grew optimally up to 14% NaCl and produced antimicrobial peptide within 24 h of growth. The peptides were purified using a combination of chemical extraction and chromatographic techniques. The MALDI-TOF analysis of HPLC purified fractions revealed that the strain SK.DU.4 secreted a bacteriocin-like peptide with molecular mass of 5323.9 Da and a surface-active lipopeptide (m/z 1056 Da). The peptide mass fingerprinting of low-molecular-weight bacteriocin exhibited significant similarity with stretches of secreted lipoprotein of Methylomicrobium album BG8 and displayed 70% sequence coverage. MALDI MS/MS analysis elucidated the lipopeptide as a cyclic lipopeptide with a β-hydroxy fatty acid linked to Ser of a peptide with seven α-amino acids (Asp-Tyr-Asn-Gln-Pro-Asn-Ser) and assigned it to iturin-like group of antimicrobial biosurfactants. However, it differed in amino acid composition with other members of the iturin family. Both peptides were active against Gram-positive bacteria, suggesting that they had an additive effect.

We report the 4.9-Mb genome sequence of Caenispirillum salinarum AK4(T) isolated from a sediment sample collected from a solar saltern at Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, India.