2023 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Investigating natural product biosynthetic pathways in the microbiomes associated with long-lived aquatic vertebrates
| Project/Area Number |
21K06612
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| Research Institution | Hokkaido University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
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| Keywords | beneficial microbiomes / long-lived animals / metagenomic analyses / proteasome activity |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The important contribution of beneficial microbiomes to the prolonged lifespan of the animal hosts has recently been recognized. In our efforts to identify key bacteria, metabolites and biosynthetic genes that may contribute to the longevity of aquatic animals, we initially obtained bacterial isolates from long-lived animals, such as chitons (lifespan ~40 years), and a Japanese rockfish (lifespan >90 years). We isolated ~430 bacterial strains from different parts of individual chitons and tested them for antibiotic resistance. It was found that ~109 bacterial strains showed resistance to certain antibiotics, which were subsequently subjected to PCR-cloning to detect strains with biosynthetic potential. We prepared metagenome from each chiton sample. Subsequent metagenomic analyses led to the identification of biosynthetically promising bacteria in two of five studied chiton samples. This was in collaboration with the Lab of Prof. Joern Piel (ETH Zurich) to complement with their work on the bacterial chemistry (Chem 2023, 9, 12: 3696-713). Using known sponge-derived compounds, we optimized the screening protocol for testing the ability of such compounds to stimulate lifespan in the organism model Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This was based on monitoring proteasome activity of compound-treated yeast lysates using a fluorogenic substrate in comparison with the positive control (proteasome-stimulating compounds) and the negative control (proteasome inhibitor).
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