This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Supplemental material
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Peraud, O.
Right arrow Articles by Schmidt, E. W.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Peraud, O.
Right arrow Articles by Schmidt, E. W.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Peraud, O.
Right arrow Articles by Schmidt, E. W.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2009, p. 6820-6826, Vol. 75, No. 21
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01238-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Microhabitats within Venomous Cone Snails Contain Diverse Actinobacteria{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Olivier Peraud,1 Jason S. Biggs,2 Ronald W. Hughen,3 Alan R. Light,3 Gisela P. Concepcion,5 Baldomero M. Olivera,4 and Eric W. Schmidt1,4*

Departments of Medicinal Chemistry,1 Anesthesiology,3 Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112,4 Department of Marine Biology, University of Guam, Mangilao, Guam 96923,2 Marine Science Institute, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines 11015

Received 29 May 2009/ Accepted 2 September 2009

Actinomycetes can be symbionts in diverse organisms, including both plants and animals. Some actinomycetes benefit their host by producing small molecule secondary metabolites; the resulting symbioses are often developmentally complex. Actinomycetes associated with three cone snails were studied. Cone snails are venomous tropical marine gastropods which have been extensively examined because of their production of peptide-based neurological toxins, but no microbiological studies have been reported on these organisms. A microhabitat approach was used in which dissected tissue from each snail was treated as an individual sample in order to explore bacteria in the tissues separately. Our results revealed a diverse, novel, and highly culturable cone snail-associated actinomycete community, with some isolates showing promising bioactivity in a neurological assay. This suggests that cone snails may represent an underexplored reservoir of novel actinomycetes of potential interest for drug discovery.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: College of Pharmacy, Medicinal Chemistry, 307 Skaggs Hall, 30 S. 2000 E., Rm. 201, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-5820. Phone: (801) 585-5234. Fax: (801) 585-9119. E-mail: ews1{at}utah.edu

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 11 September 2009.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2009, p. 6820-6826, Vol. 75, No. 21
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01238-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»