Isolation and characterization of marine bioluminescent bacteria for toxicity bioassays and biotechnological applications

• Published in: Brazilian journal of microbiology Vol. 52; no. 3; pp. 1191 - 1199
• Main Authors: Ramesh, Chatragadda, Mohanraju, Raju
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-09-2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acetic acid; Antibacterial activity; Bacteria; Bioassays; Biocompatibility; Biodiversity; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biosensors; Biotechnology and Industrial Microbiology - Research Paper; Cadmium; Environmental hazards; Ethyl acetate; Fatty acids; Food Microbiology; Gel electrophoresis; Health hazards; Heavy metals; In vivo methods and tests; Life Sciences; Luminescence; Medical Microbiology; Mercury; Microbial Ecology; Microbial Genetics and Genomics; Microbiology; Mycology; rRNA 16S; Sequence analysis; Sodium lauryl sulfate; Toxic hazards; Toxicity; Antibacterial activity; Biosensor; Heavy metal toxicity; Multilocus sequence analysis
• ISSN: 1517-8382; 1678-4405
• DOI: 10.1007/s42770-021-00471-w

Toxic heavy metals pollution posed severe health hazards to the environment and biodiversity. Therefore, the development of rapid and non-invasive bioassays is in the race to monitor toxic chemicals using novel approaches. This study isolated and characterized an intense blue luminescence-producing marine bacteria,
Vibrio campbellii
STF1, for biosensing applications. Species-level identification of this strain was confirmed based on various phenotypic tests and multilocus sequence approach using 16s rRNA,
toxR
, and
luxA
gene sequence analysis. Fatty acid methyl ester analysis revealed the presence of three predominant fatty acids C
15:0 anteiso
(21.73%), C
17:0 anteiso
(11.27%), and C
19:0 anteiso
(9.08%) in STF1. Luciferase enzyme from
V. campbellii
STF1 was extracted, partially purified, and molecular masses (alpha subunit 40 kDa and beta subunit 37 kDa) were determined by SDS-PAGE gel for
in vivo
assays. MALDI-TOF-MS analysis of
V. campbellii
cells’ protein extracts showed distinct mass spectral peaks at m/z of 2615, 3948, and 4232 da.
V. campbellii
STF1 is resistant to heavy metal lead, while other metals such as cadmium, copper, and mercury inhibited its growth and luminescence. Crude ethyl acetate extraction of
V. campbellii
demonstrated antibacterial activity against
Shigella dysenteriae
type 5 with a maximum inhibition zone of 27.0±1.0 mm.