Bifidobacterium Is Enriched in Gut Microbiome of Kashmiri Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a very common endocrine condition in women in India. Gut microbiome alterations were shown to be involved in PCOS, yet it is remarkably understudied in Indian women who have a higher incidence of PCOS as compared to other ethnic populations. During the regional PCOS screening program among young women, we recruited 19 drug naive women with PCOS and 20 control women at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Kashmir, North India. We profiled the gut microbiome in faecal samples by 16S rRNA sequencing and included 40/58 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) detected in at least 1/3 of the subjects with relative abundance (RA) ≥ 0.1%. We compared the RAs at a family/genus level in PCOS/non-PCOS groups and their correlation with 33 metabolic and hormonal factors, and corrected for multiple testing, while taking the variation in day of menstrual cycle at sample collection, age and BMI into account. Five genera were significantly enriched in PCOS cases: Sarcina, Megasphaera, and previously reported for PCOS Bifidobacterium, Collinsella and Paraprevotella confirmed by different statistical models. At the family level, the relative abundance of Bifidobacteriaceae was enriched, whereas Peptococcaceae was decreased among cases. We observed increased relative abundance of Collinsella and Paraprevotella with higher fasting blood glucose levels, and Paraprevotella and Alkalibacterium with larger hip, waist circumference, weight, and Peptococcaceae with lower prolactin levels. We also detected a novel association between Eubacterium and follicle-stimulating hormone levels and between Bifidobacterium and alkaline phosphatase, independently of the BMI of the participants. Our report supports that there is a relationship between gut microbiome composition and PCOS with links to specific reproductive health metabolic and hormonal predictors in Indian women.

Production of Lipopeptide Biosurfactant by a Marine Nesterenkonia sp. and Its Application in Food Industry.

Biosurfactants are smart biomolecules which have wide spread application in medicines, processed foods, cosmetics as well as in bioremediation. In food industry, biosurfactants are used as emulsion stabilizing agents, antiadhesives, and antimicrobial/antibiofilm agents. Nowadays biosurfactant demands in industries has increased tremendously and therefore new bacterial strains are being explored for large scale production of biosurfactants. In this study, an actinobacterial strain MSA31 was isolated from a marine sponge Fasciospongia cavernosa which showed high activity in biosurfactant screening assays such as drop collapsing, oil displacement, lipase and emulsification. Lipopeptide produced by MSA31 was found to be thermostable which was evident in differential scanning calorimetry analysis. The spectral data obtained in the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed the presence of aliphatic groups combined with peptide moiety which is a characteristic feature of lipopeptides. The stability index of lipopeptide MSA31 revealed "halo-alkali and thermal tolerant biosurfactant" which can be used in the food industry. Microtiter plate assay showed 125 µg/ml of lipopeptide was effective in reducing the biofilm formation activity of pathogenic multidrug resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The confocal laser scanning microscopic images provided further evidences that lipopeptide MSA31 was an effective antibiofilm agent. The antioxidant activity of lipopeptide MSA31 may be due to the presence of unsaturated fatty acid present in the molecule. The brine shrimp cytotoxicity assay showed lipopeptide MSA31 was non-toxic and can be used as food additives. Incorporation of lipopeptide MSA31 in muffin showed improved organoleptic qualities compared to positive and negative control. This study provides a valuable input for this lipopeptide to be used in food industry as an effective emulsifier, with good antioxidant activity and as a protective agent against S. aureus.

Ketide Synthase (KS) Domain Prediction and Analysis of Iterative Type II PKS Gene in Marine Sponge-Associated Actinobacteria Producing Biosurfactants and Antimicrobial Agents.

The important biological macromolecules, such as lipopeptide and glycolipid biosurfactant producing marine actinobacteria were analyzed and their potential linkage between type II polyketide synthase (PKS) genes was explored. A unique feature of type II PKS genes is their high amino acid (AA) sequence homology and conserved gene organization. These enzymes mediate the biosynthesis of polyketide natural products with enormous structural complexity and chemical nature by combinatorial use of various domains. Therefore, deciphering the order of AA sequence encoded by PKS domains tailored the chemical structure of polyketide analogs still remains a great challenge. The present work deals with an in vitro and in silico analysis of PKS type II genes from five actinobacterial species to correlate KS domain architecture and structural features. Our present analysis reveals the unique protein domain organization of iterative type II PKS and KS domain of marine actinobacteria. The findings of this study would have implications in metabolic pathway reconstruction and design of semi-synthetic genomes to achieve rational design of novel natural products.