Antimicrobial resistance poses a serious challenge to global public health. In this study, fifty bacterial strains were isolated from the sediments of a freshwater lake and were screened for antibiotic resistance. Out of fifty isolates, thirty-three isolates showed resistance against at least two of the selected antibiotics. Analysis of 16S rDNA sequencing revealed that the isolates belonged to ten different genera, namelyStaphylococcus(n= 8), Bacillus(n= 7), Lysinibacillus(n= 4),Achromobacter(n=3), bacterium(n= 3),Methylobacterium(n= 2),Bosea(n= 2), Aneurinibacillus(n= 2), Azospirillum(n= 1), Novosphingobium(n= 1). Enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC) and BOX-PCR markers were used to study the genetic relatedness among the antibiotic resistant isolates. Further, the isolates were screened for their antimicrobial activity against bacterial pathogens viz.,Staphylococcus aureus(MTCC-96),Pseudomonas aeruginosa(MTCC-2453) andEscherichia coli(MTCC-739), and pathogenic fungi viz.,Fusarium proliferatum(MTCC-286),Fusarium oxysporum(CABI-293942) andFusarium oxy. ciceri(MTCC-2791). In addition, biosynthetic genes (polyketide synthase II (PKS-II) and non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS)) were detected in six and seven isolates, respectively. This is the first report for the multifunctional analysis of the bacterial isolates from a wetland with biosynthetic potential, which could serve as potential source of useful biologically active metabolites.
Peer Review #2 of "Detection of antibiotic-resistant bacteria endowed with antimicrobial activity from a freshwater lake and their phylogenetic affiliation (v0.1)"
