A New Antifungal Antibiotic from Bacillus sp. KM5 Isolated from Rice Rhizospheric Soil

  • Kausik Majumdar
  • Somsubhra ChakrabortyEmail author
Research Article


Bacterial strain, Bacillus sp. KM5 was recently isolated and characterized by strong antifungal activities against several agronomically important filamentous pathogenic fungi including Rhizoctonia solani Nees. This is a new study to characterize four prominent antibiotics synthesized by Bacillus sp. KM5 (termed M1, M2, M3, and M4), isolated from rice rhizospheric soil. Lipopeptide profiling and spectroscopic characterizations of antibiotics M1 and M2 identified them as Bacillomycin F and Bacillomycin D, respectively. Antibiotic M3 was recognized as another iturinic lipopeptide Bacillopeptin A. Finally, M4 emerged as a novel straight chain polyhydroxy polyether compound with a single double bond, indicating a non-polyene structure with no prior mention in the literature. Furthermore, in vitro bioassay of M4 showed maximum activity against Rhizoctonia solani among five plant pathogenic fungi. This research could help in developing new or improved antifungal formulations or novel strategies to prevent fungal spoilage.


Antibiotics Bacillomycin Bacillopeptin Bacillus Biopesticides 



The authors are grateful for the financial and infrastructural support from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.


  1. 1.
    Sanchez P, Swaminathan MS, Dobie P, Yuksel N (2005) Halving Hunger: It Can be Done. UN Millennium Project, Task Force on Hunger 2005, Earthscan, LondonGoogle Scholar
  2. 2.
    Scherr SJ, Yadav S (1996) Land degradation in the developing world: implications for the food, agriculture, and the environment. International Food Policy Research Institute, WashingtonGoogle Scholar
  3. 3.
    Indian Council of Agricultural Research (2006) Handbook of Agriculture. 5th ed, Indian Council Of Agricultural Research, p 817Google Scholar
  4. 4.
    Johnsen K, Jacobsen CS, Torsvik V, Sørensen J (2001) Pesticide effects on bacterial diversity in agricultural soils—a review. Biol Fertil Soils 33:443–453CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. 5.
    Arias-Estévez M, López-Periago E, Martínez-Carballo E, Simal-Gándara J, Mejuto JC (2008) The mobility and degradation of pesticides in soils and the pollution of groundwater resources. Agr Ecosyst Environ 123:247–260CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. 6.
    Torsvik V, Ovreas L (2002) Microbial diversity and function in soil: from genes to ecosystems. Curr Opin Microbiol 5:240–245CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. 7.
    Gardener BBM, Fravel DR (2002) Biological control of plant pathogens: research, commercialization, and application in the USA. Plant Health Progress. Google Scholar
  8. 8.
    Bais HP, Fall R, Vivanco JM (2004) Biocontrol of Bacillus subtilis against infection of Arabidopsis roots by Pseudomonas syringae is facilitated by biofilm formation and surfactant production. Plant Physiol 134:307–319CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. 9.
    Majumdar K, Razdan M, Aggarwal N, Murali KK, Bhattacharya RC, Dureja P (2011) Isolation and characterization of a potential biocontrol agent Bacillus sp. KM5 from rhizosphere soil of a rice plant. Am Phytopathol Plant Prot 44:1196–1212CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. 10.
    Peypoux F, Marion D, Maget-dana R, Ptak M, Das BC, Michel G (1985) Structure of Bacillomycin F, a new peptidolipid antibiotic of the iturin group. Eur J Biochem 153:335–340CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. 11.
    Russel DW (1960) Ninhydrin as a reagent for N-methyl-amino acids. J Chromatogr A 4(251):252Google Scholar
  12. 12.
    Ghuysen JM, Tipper DJ, Strominger JL (1966) Enzymes that degrade bacterial cell walls. Methods Enzymol 8:685–699CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. 13.
    Edman P, Hogfeldt E, Sillen LG, Kinnel P (1950) Method for determination of the amino acid sequence in peptides. Acta Chem Scand 4:283–293CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. 14.
    Edman P, Begg G (1967) A protein sequenator. Eur J Biochem 1:80–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. 15.
    Tarr GE (1975) A general procedure for the manual sequencing of small quantities of peptides Anal. Biochena 63:361–370Google Scholar
  16. 16.
    Dorsi R, Carusone A, Chambery A, Severino V, Parente A, Maro AD (2012) Rapid primary structure determination of myoglobins by a complementary approach based on mass spectrometry and edman degradation. Food Chem 133:1646–1652CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. 17.
    Allen G (2011) Sequencing of proteins and peptides. Elsevier, New YorkGoogle Scholar
  18. 18.
    Wang Z, Chang AC, Crowley WD (2003) Assessing the soil quality of long-term reclaimed wastewater-irrigated cropland. Geoderma 114:261–278CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. 19.
    Parson WW (2007) Modern optical spectroscopy: with examples from biophysics and biochemistry. Springer, BerlinCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. 20.
    Mhammedi A, Peypoux F, Besson F, Michel G (1982) Bacillomycin F, a new antibiotic of iturin group: isolation and characterization. J Antibiot 35:306–311CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. 21.
    Moyne AL, TE ShelbyR Cleveland, Tuzun S (2001) Bacillomycin D: an iturin with antifungal activity against Aspergillus flavus. J Appl Microbiol 90:622–629CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. 22.
    KajimuraY SugiyamaM, Kaneda M (1995) Bacillopeptins, new cyclic lipopeptide antibiotics from Bacillus subtilis FR-2. J Antibiot 48:1095–1103CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. 23.
    Frost RL, Erickson KL, Weier ML, McKinnon AR, Williams PA, Leverett P (2004) Use of infrared spectroscopy for the determination of electronegativity of rare earth elements. Appl Spectrosc 58:811–815CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. 24.
    Quentin MJ, Besson F, Peypoux F, Michel G (1982) Action of peptidolipidic antibiotics of the iturin group on erythrocytes. Effect of some lipids on hemolysis. Biochimicaet Biophysica Acta 684:207–211CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  25. 25.
    Zhihui X, Jiahui S, Bing L, Xin Y, Qirong S, Ruifu Z (2012) Contribution of Bacillomycin D in Bacillus amyloliquefaciens SQR9 to antifungal activity and biofilm formation. Appl Environ Microbiol 79:808–815Google Scholar
  26. 26.
    Logan NA (1988) Bacillus species of medical and veterinary importance. J Med Microbiol 25:157–165CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  27. 27.
    Bailey KL, Boyetchko SM, Langle T (2010) Social and economic drivers shaping the future of biological control: a Canadian perspective on the factors affecting the development and use of microbial biopesticides. Biol Control 52:221–229CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© The National Academy of Sciences, India 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Rice Research Station, ChinsurahHooghlyIndia
  2. 2.Agricultural and Food Engineering DepartmentIndian Institute of Technology KharagpurKharagpurIndia

Personalised recommendations