Description

The desolate environment of the Iron Curtain Cave in Chilliwack, British Columbia, houses the Streptomyces sp. ICC1 strain shown to secrete antimicrobial secondary metabolite(s). Effective against both laboratory and multi-drug resistant strains of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcusaureus, the bioactivity has been thought to arise from the resilient physiology and specialized metabolic pathways that are known to exist within extreme-condition microbial species. Following optimization methods through liquid organic solvent extractions and both analytical and preparative reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography techniques, the bioactive secondary metabolite(s) have been reasoned to exhibit both polar and non-polar substituents. Continued structural elucidation via one-dimensional proton nuclear magnetic spectroscopy suggested an unlikely peptidic nature to the antimicrobial compound(s) produced by the cave-dwelling Streptomyces sp. ICC1 strain. Therefore, further instrumental analysis on pure samples must be performed to reveal the true molecular nature of the bioactive metabolite(s), as well as mode-of-action analyses.