Screening of anti-Candida albicans metabolites produced by marine sponge-associated bacteria

This study selected bacteria with high anti-Candida albicans (CA) activity among ten bacteria isolated from marine sponges. Bacteria were cultivated using the basal medium to produce the extract. Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) microdilution broth was used as an anti-CA assay followed by TLC-direct bioautography to characterize their active compound with spray reagents. The bacteria determination was done by molecular approaches using Repetitive-Element Sequences-based-PCR (rep-PCR) and amplification of 16S rDNA partial gene sequences, continued with BLAST analysis. The four out of ten tested bacteria had high anti-CA compounds and were potentially to be produced on a larger scale using the basal medium, which was BYT5C4, BYT5C5, BYT1A, and BYT7, with MIC of 1 mg/mL against 7.5×106 CFU/mL CA. TLC-bioautography test results showed that all metabolites from each isolate had different Rf and types of metabolites. Rep-PCR test showed that four bacteria had a low similarity index, indicating that they were different species. Based on molecular identification results, the BYT5C4, BYT5C5, BYT1A, and BYT7 isolates are strictly related to Brevibacterium casei, Exiguobacterium profundum, Micrococcus lylae, and Bacillus firmus, respectively. The active metabolites identified in this study can be isolated to determine the active molecules and their inhibitory routes to fungal growth. It is worth noting that additional research might be conducted to compare the activity of each antifungal metabolite to the synergistic activity of numerous antifungal metabolites detected in plant extracts.