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. 2023 Nov 12;28(22):7556.
doi: 10.3390/molecules28227556.

Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Profiling of Volatile Metabolites Produced by Some Bacillus spp. and Evaluation of Their Antibacterial and Antibiotic Activities

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Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Profiling of Volatile Metabolites Produced by Some Bacillus spp. and Evaluation of Their Antibacterial and Antibiotic Activities

Moldir Koilybayeva et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

Bacillus species produce different classes of antimicrobial and antioxidant substances: peptides or proteins with different structural compositions and molecular masses and a broad range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), some of which may serve as biomarkers for microorganism identification. The aim of this study is the identification of biologically active compounds synthesized by five Bacillus species using gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The current study profoundly enhances the knowledge of antibacterial and antioxidant metabolites ensuring the unambiguous identification of VOCs produced by some Bacillus species, which were isolated from vegetable samples of potato, carrot, and tomato. Phylogenetic and biochemical studies were used to identify the bacterial isolates after culturing. Phylogenetic analysis proved that five bacterial isolates BSS12, BSS13, BSS16, BSS21, and BSS25 showed 99% nucleotide sequence similarities with Bacillus safensis AS-08, Bacillus cereus WAB2133, Bacillus acidiproducens NiuFun, Bacillus toyonesis FORT 102, and Bacillus thuringiensis F3, respectively. The crude extract was prepared from bacterial isolates to assess the antibiotic resistance potency and the antimicrobial potential against various targeted multidrug-resistant strains, including yeast strains such as Candida albicans, Candida krusei, and bacterial strains of Enterococcus hirae, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella aerogenes, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus group B, Streptococcus mutans, Shigella sonnei, Salmonella enteritidis, Serratia marcescens, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Proteus vulgaris. GC-MS analysis of bacterial strains found that VOCs from Bacillus species come in a variety of chemical forms, such as ketones, alcohols, terpenoids, alkenes, etc. Overall, 69 volatile organic compounds were identified from five Bacillus species, and all five were found to share different chemical classes of volatile organic components, which have a variety of pharmacological applications. However, eight antibacterial compounds with different concentrations were commonly found in all five species: acetoin, acetic acid, butanoic acid, 2-methyl-, oxime-, methoxy-phenyl, phenol, 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid, bis(2-methylpropyl) ester, nonanoic acid, and hexadecanoic acid, methyl. The present study has demonstrated that bacterial isolates BSS25, BSS21, and BSS16 display potent inhibitory effects against Candida albicans, while BSS25, BSS21, and BSS13 exhibit the ability to restrain the growth and activity of Candida krusei. Notably, BSS25 and BSS21 are the only isolates that demonstrate substantial inhibitory activity against Klebsiella aerogenes. This disparity in inhibitory effects could be attributed to the higher concentrations of acetoin in BSS25 and BSS21, whereas BSS16 and BSS13 have relatively elevated levels of butanoic acid, 2-methyl-. Certainly, the presence of acetoin and butanoic acid, 2-methyl-, contributes to the enhanced antibacterial potential of these bacterial strains, in conjunction with other organic volatile compounds and peptides, among other factors. The biology and physiology of Bacillus can be better understood using these results, which can also be used to create novel biotechnological procedures and applications. Moreover, because of its exceptional ability to synthesize and produce a variety of different antibacterial compounds, Bacillus species can serve as natural and universal carriers for antibiotic compounds in the form of probiotic cultures and strains to fight different pathogens, including mycobacteria.

Keywords: Bacillus acidiproducens; Bacillus cereus; Bacillus safensis; Bacillus subtilis; Bacillus thuringiensis; Bacillus toyonensis; GC–MC analysis; antimicrobial activity; volatile organic compounds.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Antagonistic activity of the bacteria of the genus Bacillus against pathogens. The antagonistic efficacy of all five isolates was examined against pathogenic bacteria, such as Salmonella enterica ATCC 35664, Serratia marcescens ATCC 13880, Klebsiella aerogenes ATCC 13048, Shigella sonnei ATCC 25931, Streptococcus mutans ATCC 25175, Klebseiella pneumoniae ATCC 13883, Group B Streptococcus, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 9027, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213, Enterococcus hirae ATCC 10541, Proteus vulgaris ATCC 6380, and Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC 12228. Moreover, the antagonistic efficacy of all five isolates was examined against yeast strains such as Candida albicans ATCC 2091 and Candida krusei ATCC 14243. (AA2)—BSS25, (BB2)—BSS21, (CC2)—BSS16, (DD2)—BSS13, and (EE2)—BSS12.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Structure of common components identified from Bacillus spp. isolates.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The phylogenetic tree using the neighbor-joining model was constructed according to 16S rRNA gene sequences representing different Bacillus species, i.e., Bacillus thuringiensis F3, Bacillus toyonensis FORT 102, Bacillus acidiproducens NiuFun, Bacillus cereus WAB2133, and Bacillus safensis AS-08, respectively. E. coli JCM 1649 (AB242910) was used as an outgroup in the phylogenetic tree.

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