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Screening of Antimicrobials from Caribbean Sea Animals and Isolation of Bactericidal Proteins from the Littoral Mollusk Cenchritis muricatus

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Abstract

Marine organisms represent approximately half of the world’s biodiversity by virtue of the sea being an immense reservoir of bioactive molecules. Here, antimicrobial crude extract activities of different marine invertebrates from the Caribbean Sea were evaluated. One of the most active, crude extracts was that marine snail Cenchritis muricatus, it was capable of totally inhibiting the development of Staphylococcus aureus and also showed a growth inhibition of 95.9% in Escherichia coli. Aiming to isolate molecules that confirm antimicrobial activity, the crude extract was purified by reversed-phase HPLC C-18 chromatography. Thereafter, one of the obtained fractions preserved this antibacterial activity. Furthermore, SDS-PAGE analysis (15%) showed the presence of two proteins of molecular masses with approximately 10 and 15 kDa, respectively. The first 19 amino acids of both proteins were sequenced by using Edman degradation, yielding unidentified primary structures compared against sequences deposited at NCBI databank. This is the first report of antibacterial proteins isolated from the mollusk Cenchritis muricatus and these proteins could be used as antibiotic alternatives in the aquacultural industry, as well as in agricultural or biomedical research.

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Acknowledgment

This study was supported by CAPES, CNPq, FAPDF, and UCB.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Análises Proteômicas e Bioquímicas, Programa de Pós-Graduacão em Ciências Genômicas e Biotecnologia, Universidade Católica de Brasília, SGAN Quadra 916, Módulo B, Av. W5 Norte 70, Asa Norte, Brasília, DF, 790-160, Brazil

    Loiane A. Lima, Simone Maria-Neto, Simoni C. Dias & Octavio L. Franco

  2. Laboratorio de Anticuerpos Monoclonales, Subdirecciónde Parasitología, Instituto de Medicina Tropical “Pedro Kourí”, La Habana, Cuba

    Annia Alba

  3. Universidade Federal do Ceara, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil

    Ilka M. Vasconcelos & Jose T. A. Oliveira

  4. Laboratoriode Inmunoanalìtica y Péptidos Antimicrobianos, Centro de Estudios de Proteínas, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de La Habana, La Habana, Cuba

    Carlos López-Abarrategui & Anselmo J. Otero-Gonzalez

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  1. Carlos López-Abarrategui
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  2. Annia Alba
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  3. Loiane A. Lima
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  4. Simone Maria-Neto
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  5. Ilka M. Vasconcelos
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  6. Jose T. A. Oliveira
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  7. Simoni C. Dias
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  8. Anselmo J. Otero-Gonzalez
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  9. Octavio L. Franco
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Correspondence to Octavio L. Franco.

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López-Abarrategui, C., Alba, A., Lima, L.A. et al. Screening of Antimicrobials from Caribbean Sea Animals and Isolation of Bactericidal Proteins from the Littoral Mollusk Cenchritis muricatus . Curr Microbiol 64, 501–505 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-012-0096-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-012-0096-5

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