, 2002) Furthermore, the antimicrobial spectra of endophenazines

, 2002). Furthermore, the antimicrobial spectra of endophenazines were reported as having good activity against several Gram-positive bacteria but no activity against Gram-negative bacteria (Gebhardt et al., 2002). Preliminary analysis find more with the 16S rRNA genes

of some isolates in our collection revealed the presence of S. anulatus in honeybee guts, which supports our finding here that similar redox-active molecules are produced by the Nocardiopsis isolate from honeybee guts. Although the relationship between the actinomycetes and insects needs to be further characterized, production of endophenazines might be a first step toward establishing or evolving a symbiotic relationship. It would be interesting to investigate the frequency of occurrence of actinomycete phenazine producers in honeybee guts. Various gene-centric pangenomic or multilocus sequence typing approaches could be used. Naturally occurring phenazines are redox-active compounds, traditionally thought

as antimicrobials Adriamycin order that include over 100 structures (Laursen & Nielsen, 2004). In several Pseudomonas models, the biological roles of phenazines have recently been expanded with implications in microbial interaction processes such as shuttling electron, intracellular signaling, contributing to form biofilm and enhancing anaerobic survival (Pierson & Pierson, 2010). These

roles are also expected for phenazines produced by actinomycetes, with possibly additional functions beyond antibiotic because the structural diversity of actinomycete phenazines is even greater and the lifecycle of actinomycetes is generally complex. Phenazines produced by the actinomycetes from honeybee guts probably have structural commonalities even though the producers can be quite different (e.g. Nocardiopsis vs. Streptomyces). Indeed, more actinomycete isolates in our study displayed specific antagonism against a B. marisflavi strain than against other Bacillus strains (Table 1). On the other hand, other microbial metabolites that share an anthranilic acid structural moiety next with phenazines, such as actinomycins and quinolones, also have widely known electrochemical properties. In addition, thiols, quinones and coumarins of microbial origins have noticeable electron transfer capabilities. Voltammetric measurements of the purified compounds will shed light on the proposed biological functions of these secondary metabolites. Lastly, some actinomycetes carry numerous stress-responsive genes for maintaining viability in anaerobiosis (van Keulen et al., 2007). Using the extracellular redox-active secondary metabolites as respiratory electron acceptors could be another survival strategy of actinomycetes.

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