Bioactive compound from Pseudomonas synxantha inhibits the growth of Mycobacteria.

Tuberculosis is a dreaded disease and the current situation demands new anti-tubercular agent(s) for the management of public health. Towards this direction, we obtained a contaminant organism on a Mycobacterium smegmatis lawn having growth inhibitory activity against the later. In the current study, efforts were targeted to identify this organism and characterize the bioactive compound from this isolate that inhibited the growth of Mycobacteria. The result revealed that the organism is a strain of Pseudomonas synxantha. Biophysical analyses including (1)H and (13)C NMR, ESI-mass spectroscopy, FTIR showed that the bioactive compound is a long chain aliphatic hydrocarbon with a terminal alyl bond and intermediate electronegative atom. The compound exhibited strong growth inhibitory activities against M. smegmatis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains H37Ra, H37Rv and BCG. Further experiments showed that both P. synxantha and its secretory metabolites are capable of inducing hemolysis of human blood. Thus the results of this study clearly indicate that the bioactive compound produced by P. Synxantha has biosurfactant activities as well as anti-myco-bacterial properties.