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Rare taxa and dark microbial matter: novel bioactive actinobacteria abound in Atacama Desert soils

Goodfellow, Michael, Nouioui, Imen, Sanderson, Roy, Xie, Feiyang, Bull, Alan T. (2018) Rare taxa and dark microbial matter: novel bioactive actinobacteria abound in Atacama Desert soils. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, . ISSN 0003-6072. (doi:10.1007/s10482-018-1088-7) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:66976)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)
Official URL:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-018-1088-7

Abstract

An “in house” taxonomic approach to drug discovery led to the isolation of diverse actinobacteria from hyper-arid, extreme hyper-arid and very high altitude Atacama Desert soils. A high proportion of the isolates were assigned to novel taxa, with many showing activity in standard antimicrobial plug assays. The application of more advanced taxonomic and screening strategies showed that strains classified as novel species of Lentzea and Streptomyces synthesised new specialised metabolites thereby underpinning the premise that the extreme abiotic conditions in the Atacama Desert favour the development of a unique actinobacterial diversity which is the basis of novel chemistry. Complementary metagenomic analyses showed that the soils encompassed an astonishing degree of actinobacterial ‘dark matter’, while rank-abundance analyses showed them to be highly diverse habitats mainly composed of rare taxa that have not been recovered using culture-dependent methods. The implications of these pioneering studies on future bioprospecting campaigns are discussed.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1007/s10482-018-1088-7
Uncontrolled keywords: Systematics, Metagenomics, Antimicrobial activities, Biotechnology
Subjects: Q Science
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Natural Sciences > Biosciences
Depositing User: Susan Davies
Date Deposited: 10 May 2018 09:59 UTC
Last Modified: 04 Mar 2024 16:31 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/66976 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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