African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 10(83), pp. 19473-19480, 21 December, 2011 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJB DOI: 10.5897/AJB11.2473 ISSN 1684–5315 © 2011 Academic Journals Full Length Research Paper Aerococcus sp. with an antimycobacterial effect Ilham Zahir*, Abdellah Houari, Mohammed Iraqui and Saad Ibnsouda Laboratory of Microbial Biotechnology, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences and Technical, University Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, BP 2202, Road of Immouzer, Fez, Morocco. Accepted 21 November, 2011 Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that causes fatality every year because of drugs resistance of the Mycobacterium complex; this is why the development of new antibiotics becomes an urgent need. To reach that target, a main approach was led; consisting on screening of active substances producing microorganism. In this study, we reported data on a strain that was isolated from different areas of Fez (Morocco), which present an antagonistic effect against Mycobacterium smegematis and possessed a large spectrum against bacteria of Gram positive and negative. The antimycobacterial compounds producer, ZI1, was identified as Aerococcus sp. on the basis of PCR amplification of 16S ribosomal RNA gene followed by sequencing (99 and 100% of homology, respectively by RS16 and FD1), and by using biochemical tests, the unknown bacterium ZI1 was so close to either the species Aerococcus viridans or Aerococcus urinaeequi, but it was distinguishable from the other five Aerococcus species. The antimycobacterial compounds were synthesised in the exponential growth phase of Aerococcus sp. and were fully affected following heat treatment and protolytic enzymes which indicated the proteinaceous nature of the active agents. Key words: Tuberculosis, antimycobacterial compounds, Aerococcus sp. INTRODUCTION Tuberculosis is a perilous and contagious bacterial the increasing numbers of multidrug-resistant strains. infection caused by the complex Mycobacterium (M. ) Furthermore, the only vaccine currently licensed for use including M. tuberculosis , M. bovis, M. africanum , M. against tuberculosis, the live attenuated Mycobacterium microti , M. canettii and M. pinnipedii (Ernst et al., 2007). bovis strain Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), is effective This disease is characterized by an inflammatory only in providing protection against severe childhood response that leads to containment, but not eradication of forms of the disease such as tuberculous meningitis and bacteria within granulomas in the lung, and the success miliary tuberculosis, and its efficacy for providing of the causative agent as a pathogen is its ability to protection against the more common adult pulmonary evade host immunity by multiplying into macrophages form of the disease has been highly variable and has and establishing a chronic infection (Bhatt and Salgame, ranged from 0 to 80% in different clinical trials (Whelana 2007; Rengarajan et al., 2008). et al., 2008). All this has made the whole world in a hurry Moreover, this infection remains between the curable to find new anti-tubercular agents with novel modes of diseases that provoke a big number of casualties (Dye, actions. 2006); the statistics speak about more than 1.7 million Natural products or their semi-synthetic derivatives, dead people in 2009 (World Health Organization, 2010). well defined as providing novel examples of anti-infective Due to the decline of socioeconomic standards, the drug leads, currently play important roles in the chemo- human immunodeficiency virus pandemic aggravated by therapy of tuberculosis and form one avenue in the search for new antitubercular agents. For example, Aminoglycoside antibiotics (streptomycin) isolated from Streptomyces griseus , and cyclic peptides (capreomycin) *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]. Tel: isolated from Streptomyces capreolus NRRL 2773. 0665615583. Fax: 0535510269. These natural products exhibited wide-ranging in vitro Abbreviations : A, Aerococcus ; LB , Luria-Bertoni; M, potency towards M. tuberculosis (Copp, 2003). Mycobacterium. This is why we present here an antimycobacterial 19474 Afr. J. Biotechnol. compounds producing bacterium isolated from different areas Fez Morocco. These samples were treated independently ecological zones of Fez (Morocco) which is Aerococcus according to the method followed by Hassi et al. (2007). Colonies sp. which present halos of inhibition against M. smegmatis were picked up and transferred to sterile Soc or LB agar plates; these were The antibacterial activity of the genus Aerococcus have incubated at 37°C and conserved at 4°C for later assays. been reported in few studies such as in Zaria’s research (Zaria, 1993), which found that A. viridans is able to inhibit the growth of four Staphylococcus hyicus , three Antimycobacterial activity assay Staphylococcus aureus strains and some other Gram- positive bacteria, including Streptococcus group A and D Antimycobacterial activity was done to confirm previous results and it was performed by two different methods, that is, (1) agar-well Corynebacteria (Zaria, 1993). However, its antimyco- diffusion assay as led by Muriana and Klaenhammer (1991). The bacterial effect has never been elucidated by any other presence of inhibition zone around each well was evaluated by studies. measuring its diameter. (2) A modified spot-on-lawn assay where a The objectives of this study include (a) screening colony of the isolated strain was spotted onto the surface of Soc antimycobacterial compounds-producing bacteria active agar plates which had been already spread with a broth culture of against M. smegmatis (b) identifying strains on the basis of indicator M. smegmatis . These plates were incubated at 37°C for 24 h and the antimycobacterial activity was detected by the gram stain, biochemical characteristics and PCR followed observation of inhibition area surrounding on test strains (Tagg et by DNA sequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA gene (c) al., 1976). These assays were done three times and they were also evaluating antimicrobial activity of the isolated bacterium carried out to evaluate the inhibitory activity of E. coli Dh5 α used as against a broad spectrum of gram positive and negative a control. bacteria and (d) partially characterizing of the secreted substances. Identification of antimycobacterial compounds-producing strains MATERIALS AND METHODS Antimycobacterial compounds producing strain was examined for Bacterial strains and media cellular morphology, gram stained characteristics using a microscope. The biochemical identification was also performed ZI1 is an isolate obtained from different ecological zones of Fez according to Bergey’s Manual of Determinative Bacteriology (Holt et Morocco which was selected for its ability to inhibit the growth of M. al., 1994). smegmatis . After that isolate was identified by molecular methods which M. smegmatis MC² 155 is used as an indicator bacterium of consist to amplify the 16S rRNA gene of the strain by PCR and to antagonistic activity; it’s a non pathogenic atypical strain with a determine 16S rDNA sequence by direct sequencing. generation time of approximately 3 h (Grosset et al., 1989). Other The PCR amplification was performed with the primers RS 16 and FD1 targeted against regions of 16S rDNA. The amplification bacteria chosen as indicators for the inhibitory spectrum assay R were: Mycobacterium aurum A+: non pathogenic bacterium with a protocol was carried out in thermal cycler (Techgene ) under the generation time of approximately 6 h. This strain was used as a following conditions: denaturation at 94°C for 5 min, followed by 35 model to evaluate the effect of active substances on the growth of cycles of denaturation at 94°C for 30 s, annealing at 55°C for 45 s, M. tuberculosis (Chung et al., 1995). and extension at 72°C for 1min 30 s. The final extension was at The mycobacteria were kindly provided by Dr. Suzana David 72°C for 5 min. PCR reaction composed of 20 µl of 10 × reaction (Centro de Tuberculose e Micobactérias Instituto Nacional de Taq buffer with 25 mM MgCl 2, 1 mM deoxynucleoside triphosphate, Saúde Dr. Ricardo Jorge Delegação do Porto, Portugal). 1 U/µl of Taq polymerase, 10 µM of each primer, distilled water and Staphyloccus haemolyticus (Hassi et al., 2007), Bacillus subtilis ILP 2 µl of genomic DNA which was used as a template for 142B (Hamadi and Latrache, 2008), Escherichia coli Dh5 α amplification (Saiki et al., 1985; Weisberg et al., 1991). (Microbial biotechnology laboratory of Techniques and Sciences PCR products were resolved by electrophoresis in 1% agarose Faculty, Fès), Erwinia chrysanthemi 3937 (Hassouni et al., 1999) gel and visualized by ethidium bromide (10 mg/ml) staining. PCR were friendly provided by Dr. Hassouni (LCB-CNRS-Marseille). amplicons were purified and sequenced using the Big Dye These strains were propagated in Luria-Bertani (LB) at 37°C or at Terminator with primers while automated sequencing of both 30°C for Erwinia chrysanthemi . strands of the PCR products was done on a BIOSYSTEME 3130 The isolate was stored at -70°C in LB broth supplemented with automated gene sequencer (Sanger et al., 1977). 25% glycerol. Throughout the experiments, the strains were Identification analysis was realized by an alignment of sequence subcultured every week on agar media and held at 4°C. Different consensus of the 16S rDNA genes collected in an international media in broth or on agar plates were used including Luria-Bertani database (Genebank) present at the