Isolation by Miniaturized Culture Chip of an Antarctic bacterium Aequorivita sp. with Antimicrobial and Antihelminthic Activity

Microbes are prolific sources of bioactive molecules, however, access to microbial diversity has severely been hampered by the cultivability issue. Novel secondary metabolites from as-yet-unknown or atypical microorganisms from both temperate and extreme environments have realistic potential to lead to new drugs with tremendous benefit for human health. In this work, we used a novel approach that mimics the natural environment by using a Miniaturized Culture Chip (MCC) allowing the isolation of several bacterial strains from Antarctic shallow water sediments under near natural conditions. One of the strains, a Gram- negative Antarctic bacterium belonging to the genus Aequorivita was subjected to further analyses. The genome of the Aequorivita sp. was sequenced and a bioinformatics approach was applied to identify putative biosynthetic gene clusters. The organic extract of the Aequorivita sp. showed antimicrobial activity towards a panel of Multidrug Resistant (MDR) bacteria and antihelminthic activity against the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. This is the first multi-approach study exploring the genomics and biotechnological potential of the genus Aequorivita and suggesting it as a promising candidate for pharmaceutical applications.