Novel marine metalloproteases for antimicrobial activity

Marine organisms produce bioactive molecules with unique characteristics, to survive in extreme habitats. These enzymes can be applied in biotechnological processes and in the medical sector to replace aggressive chemicals which are harmful to the environment. Especially in the human health sector, is a need for new approaches to fight against pathogens like Stenotrophomonas maltophilia which forms thick biofilms on artificial joints or catheters and causes serious diseases. To address this challenge, we used enrichment cultures with marine material and sequence-based screenings in combination with deep omics analyses to find enzymes with antibiofilm characteristics. The supernatant of an enrichment culture with a stony coral prohibits the forming of a dense biofilm by the strain S.maltophilia K279a at about 40 %. Our transcriptome dataset of the biofilm formation with the addition of the supernatant showed a clear stress response (e.g., transcripts for metal resistance, antitoxins, transporter, and iron acquisition) to the treatment. Further investigation of the enrichment culture metagenome and proteome indicated a series of potential antimicrobial enzymes. Striking is the large group of metalloproteases, we found in the proteome of the supernatant.