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.
