Micrococcin P1 and P2 from Epibiotic Bacteria Associated with Isolates of from Kenya.

Epibiotic bacteria associated with the filamentous marine cyanobacterium were explored as a novel source of antibiotics and to establish whether they can produce cyclodepsipeptides on their own. Here, we report the isolation of micrococcin P1 () (CHNOS; obs. / 1144.21930/572.60381) and micrococcin P2 () (CHNOS; obs. / 1142.20446/571.60370) from a strain of isolated from ' filaments. Interestingly, most bacteria isolated from ' filaments were found to be human pathogens. Stalked diatoms on the filaments suggested a possible terrestrial origin of some epibionts. CuSO·5HO assisted differential genomic DNA isolation and phylogenetic analysis showed that a Kenyan strain of differed from strain CCAP 1446/4 and clones. Organic extracts of the epibiotic bacteria and did not produce cyclodepsipeptides. Further characterization of 24 Firmicutes strains from identified extracts of as most active. Our results showed that the genetic basis for synthesizing micrococcin P1 (), discovered in ATCC 14579, is species/strain-dependent and this reinforces the need for molecular identification of species worldwide and their epibionts. These findings indicate that -associated bacteria are an overlooked source of antimicrobial compounds.