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The Kolumbo submarine volcano of Santorini island is a large pool of bacterial strains with antimicrobial activity

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Abstract

Microbes in hydrothermal vents with their unique secondary metabolism may represent an untapped potential source of new natural products. In this study, samples were collected from the hydrothermal field of Kolumbo submarine volcano in the Aegean Sea, in order to isolate bacteria with antimicrobial activity. Eight hundred and thirty-two aerobic heterotrophic bacteria were isolated and then differentiated through BOX-PCR analysis at the strain level into 230 genomic fingerprints, which were screened against 13 different type strains (pathogenic and nonpathogenic) of Gram-positive, Gram-negative bacteria and fungi. Forty-two out of 176 bioactive-producing genotypes (76 %) exhibited antimicrobial activity against at least four different type strains and were selected for 16S rDNA sequencing and screening for nonribosomal peptide (NRPS) and polyketide (PKS) synthases genes. The isolates were assigned to genus Bacillus and Proteobacteria, and 20 strains harbored either NRPS, PKS type I or both genes. This is the first report on the diversity of culturable mesophilic bacteria associated with antimicrobial activity from Kolumbo area; the extremely high proportion of antimicrobial-producing strains suggested that this unique environment may represent a potential reservoir of novel bioactive compounds.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Prof. Steven Carey and Dr. Katherine L. Croff Bell (Chief Scientist) for inviting us to participate in the E/V Nautilus 2010 expedition, the crew of E/V Nautilus and the pilots of the remotely operated vehicle Hercules for their help in obtaining the samples. We also thank the members of Microbiology Group Prof. George Dialinas, Dr. Alexandros Savvidis and Dr. Sotiris Amillis for their precious help. This research has been co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund—ESF) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program “Education and Lifelong Learning” of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF)—Research Funding Program: Heracleitus II.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microbiology Laboratory, Department of Botany, Faculty of Biology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 157 01, Athens, Greece

    Maria Bourbouli, Efstathios A. Katsifas & Amalia D. Karagouni

  2. Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, P.O. Box 712, 190 13, Anavissos, Attiki, Greece

    Evangelos Papathanassiou

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  1. Maria Bourbouli
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  2. Efstathios A. Katsifas
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  3. Evangelos Papathanassiou
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  4. Amalia D. Karagouni
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Correspondence to Amalia D. Karagouni.

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Communicated by Erko Stackebrandt.

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Bourbouli, M., Katsifas, E.A., Papathanassiou, E. et al. The Kolumbo submarine volcano of Santorini island is a large pool of bacterial strains with antimicrobial activity. Arch Microbiol 197, 539–552 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-015-1086-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-015-1086-3

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