Publication

Abstract : An endophytic bacterial strain from a marine green alga,Ulva lactuca, was isolated and identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing method. The bacterial isolate was found to secrete two major families of cyclic depsilipopeptides, surfactins, and fengycins. Sequencing of the isolated lipopeptides was carried out using the MSndata obtained from an electrospray ionization (ESI) ion trap mass spectrometer coupled to an HPLC system. The assigned sequences were confirmed by a chemical derivatization approach involving esterification followed by mass spectrometric analysis. Distinction of leucine residues from isoleucine was established through a combined electron transfer dissociation-collision-induced dissociation (ETD-CID) method. The fengycins described in this study were found to cause significant delay of growth of two plants,Vigna radiata(mung bean) andOryza sativa(rice). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study describing identification and characterization of cyclic peptides from an endophyticBacillus sp. isolated from marine algae.