Nutritional Profiling and Antioxidant Property of Three Wild Edible Mushrooms from North East India.

The mushroom is an important food for the rural tribal populations in Manipur, because of its high nutritional contents. In this study, we report on the nutritional profile of three wild edible mushrooms consumed by the tribal populations of Manipur viz.: Macrocybe gigantea J124; Lactifluus leptomerus J201 and Ramaria thindii J470. The studied mushrooms possess a high protein content of 37.6%, 20.8% and 16.4%, respectively. They have a high vitamin C content with low vitamin B1, B2 and folic acid. Among the three mushrooms, M. gigantea J124 possesses the highest mineral content, followed by R. thindii J470 and L. leptomerus J201. The total phenolic content of L. leptomerus J201, M. gigantea J124 and R. thindii J470 were 26.206, 29.23 and 30.99 mg GAE/g, with flavonoid content of 6.646, 6.854 and 9.187 mg quercetin/g, respectively. R. thindii J470 has the highest TPC and TFC content, which correlates with its DPPH radical scavenging activity. The IC50 values for R. thindii J470, M. gigantea J124 and L. leptomerus J201 are 242.0 µg/mL, 550.4 µg/mL and 689.0 µg/mL, respectively, which suggest that the higher content of phenolic compounds in R. thindii J470 contributes to its radical scavenging properties.

Analysis of Antimicrobial Peptide Metabolome of Bacterial Endophyte Isolated From Traditionally Used Medicinal Plant Millettia pachycarpa Benth.

Increasing prevalence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has posed a major health concern worldwide, and the addition of new antimicrobial agents is diminishing due to overexploitation of plants and microbial resources. Inevitably, alternative sources and new strategies are needed to find novel biomolecules to counter AMR and pandemic circumstances. The association of plants with microorganisms is one basic natural interaction that involves the exchange of biomolecules. Such a symbiotic relationship might affect the respective bio-chemical properties and production of secondary metabolites in the host and microbes. Furthermore, the discovery of taxol and taxane from an endophytic fungus, Taxomyces andreanae from Taxus wallachiana, has stimulated much research on endophytes from medicinal plants. A gram-positive endophytic bacterium, Paenibacillus peoriae IBSD35, was isolated from the stem of Millettia pachycarpa Benth. It is a rod-shaped, motile, gram-positive, and endospore-forming bacteria. It is neutralophilic as per Joint Genome Institute's (JGI) IMG system analysis. The plant was selected based on its ethnobotany history of traditional uses and highly insecticidal properties. Bioactive molecules were purified from P. peoriae IBSD35 culture broth using 70% ammonium sulfate and column chromatography techniques. The biomolecule was enriched to 151.72-fold and the yield percentage was 0.05. Peoriaerin II, a highly potent and broad-spectrum antimicrobial peptide against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, and Candida albicans ATCC 10231 was isolated. LC-MS sequencing revealed that its N-terminal is methionine. It has four negatively charged residues (Asp + Glu) and a total number of two positively charged residues (Arg + Lys). Its molecular weight is 4,685.13 Da. It is linked to an LC-MS/MS inferred biosynthetic gene cluster with accession number A0A2S6P0H9, and blastp has shown it is 82.4% similar to fusaricidin synthetase of Paenibacillus polymyxa SC2. The 3D structure conformation of the BGC and AMP were predicted using SWISS MODEL homology modeling. Therefore, combining both genomic and proteomic results obtained from P. peoriae IBSD35, associated with M. pachycarpa Benth., will substantially increase the understanding of antimicrobial peptides and assist to uncover novel biological agents.