Macrolactins produced by an actinomycete isolated from marine samples

Abstract

Marine actinomycetes represent an unexploited source for the discovery of novel secondary metabolites. The exploitation of marine actinomycetes as a source for novel bioactive metabolites is in its infancy. Even with the limited screening efforts that have been dedicated to date to marine actinomycetes, the discovery rate of novel bioactive metabolites from marine actinomycetes has recently surpassed that of their terrestrial counterparts. As evident by the isolation of many new compounds from marine actinomycetes, there is a tremendous potential for the isolation of novel secondary metabolites from marine actinomycetes. In our search for bioactive metabolites from marine actinomycete, we could isolate a strain which produces macrolactin derivatives. Macrolactin A, a 24-membered lactone, had previously been reported to show antibacterial, cytotoxic and antiviral activities. We identified the marine actinomycete through 16S rRNA sequence analysis and report here the isolation and structure elucidation of macrolactins.