NATURAL QUORUM SENSING INHIBITORS FROM PREVIOUSLY UNCULTURED MARINE BACTERIA

Hilla Ben-Hamo ¹ Ariel Kushmaro ^1,2,3 Robert S. Marks ^1,2,3,4

¹Avram and Stella Goldstein-Goren, The Department of Biotechnology Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Sciences, Ben-Gurion Univertsity of the Negev, Beer-Sheva
²School of Materials Science & Engineering,, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
³National Institute for Biotechnology Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva
⁴The Ilse Katz Center for Meso and Nanoscale Science and Technology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva

It has been estimated that more than 99% of microorganisms have yet to be cultured. Regarding the fact that the marine world contains approximately 75% of all living organisms, there is a great potential in this environment yet to be discovered. One exciting topic is the exploration of quorum sensing (QS) inhibitors and inducers in the marine environment, especially those associated with corals. The goal of this study is to detect new QS inhibition or induction materials mainly from marine bacteria (cultured and previously uncultured/unculturable), to isolate and elucidate the structure of those compounds and to produce the relevant molecules. In addition, the possible use of those compounds in medical application will be tested. In order to meet that need, we were using a previously in-house developed technique. This means, employing agar spheres in which previously unculturable microorganisms were entrapped. The spheres polymeric membrane coat enables molecules to diffuse in and out of the sphere without losing the encapsulated bacterial cells, enabling the growth of bacteria that have not yet been cultivated.

Coral mucus was encapsulated and in-situ incubated. Spheres which their content found to be active continued to several cycles of encapsulation and incubation, the bacteria population has been molecularly analyzed. The samples are in the midst of chemical analysis and separation processes.