Diversity of marine bacteria producing beta-glucosidase inhibitors.

Background: Beta-glucosidase inhibitors are being extensively studied for use as anti-diabetics, anti-obesity and anti-tumour compounds. So far, these compounds have been reported in large numbers from plants, mushrooms, algae and fungi. There are very few reports of such inhibitors from bacteria in the open literature, particularly marine bacteria; although the best known inhibitor deoxynojirimycin was isolated from bacilli and actinomycete. Through this study, we tried to discover the diversity of microbial associates of marine sponge and sediment producing β-glucosidase inhibitors.

Results: We found 41 (22.7%) out of 181 bacteria, produced such inhibitors. The inhibitors are abundant in bacterial associates of marine sponge Aka coralliphaga. When these bacteria were phylogenetically analyzed, it was found that marine bacteria producing glucosidase inhibitors belong to the phylum Firmicutes (23), Actinobacteria (9), Proteobacteria (7) and Bacteroidetes (1).

Conclusion: A significant number of marine bacteria belonging to a wide range of bacterial taxa were found to produce β-glucosidase inhibitors. These compounds are abundantly present in bacteria of the phylum Firmicutes followed by the phylum Actinobacteria. The results nurture a hope of finding new compounds, which can inhibit glucosidases, in the bacterial domain of marine organisms. Thus, marine microbial cells can be utilized as producers of pharmacologically essential enzyme inhibitors.