The Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience
Congratulations to current and former members of the Loesgen Lab who recently published a collaborative paper titled "Biodiversity, bioactivity, and metabolites of high desert derived Oregonian soil bacteria" in Chemistry and Biodiversity.
From arid, high desert soil samples collected near Bend, Oregon, 19 unique bacteria were isolated. Each strain was identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and their organic extracts were tested for anti‐bacterial and anti‐proliferative activities. Noteworthy, six extracts (30%) exhibited strong inhibition resulting in less than 50% cell proliferation in more than one cancer cell model, tested at 10 μg/mL. Principal component analysis (PCA) of LCMS data revealed drastic differences in the metabolic profiles found in the organic extracts of these soil bacteria. In total, fourteen potent antibacterial and/or cytotoxic metabolites were isolated via bioactivity‐guided fractionation, including two new natural products: a pyrazinone containing tetrapeptide and 7‐methoxy‐2,3‐dimethyl‐4 H ‐chromen‐4‐one, as well as twelve known compounds: (‐)‐furanonaphthoquinone I, bafilomycin C1 and D, FD‐594, oligomycin A, chloramphenicol, MY12‐62A, rac ‐sclerone, isosclerone, tunicamycin VII, tunicamycin VIII, and anthrabenzoxocinone (6 S , 16 S )1.264‐C.