Comparative genomic and metabolomic study of three Streptomyces sp. differing in biological activity

The Streptomyces genus is known to produce many specialized metabolites of value for medicine, but the potential of these metabolites in agronomy remains largely unexplored. In this study, we investigated three phylogenetically closely related Streptomyces strains (B5, B91, and B135) isolated from three distinct soil samples in Sudan. Despite belonging to the same species, these strains exhibited different ranges of Phytophthora infestans inhibition. The objective of this work was to identify the active compound(s) responsible for the inhibition of P. infestans and of other plant pathogens by comparing the genomes and metabolomes of the three strains which showed distinct activity patterns: B5 was the strongest inhibitor of oomycetes, B5 and B91 both inhibited most fungi and B135 was the only strain showing antibacterial activity. Our comparative genomic and metabolomic analysis identified borrelidin as the bioactive compound underlying B5's strong anti-oomycete activity and highlighted a few other metabolites as putative candidates underlying the strains' antifungal and antibacterial activities. This study illustrates the power of comparative genomics and metabolomics on phylogenetically closely related strains of differing activities to highlight bioactive compounds that could contribute to new sustainable crop protection strategies.