TEHRAN – An international team of researchers has discovered two previously unknown natural products from a bacterial strain isolated from a soil sample collected in Lavasan, Iran, highlighting the country’s potential as a source of microorganisms with promising applications in natural product and antibiotic research.
The compounds, named lavasamycin A and lavasamycin B, are produced by Streptomyces barkulensis subsp. lavasanensis, a previously uncharacterized bacterial subspecies identified by researchers at the Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures in collaboration with scientists from the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (HZI).
The findings have been published in the Journal of Natural Products.
The discovery began with the isolation of the bacterium from a soil sample collected in Lavasan, a city in Iran. Following its isolation, researchers at the DSMZ conducted taxonomic investigations and characterized the microorganism as a new subspecies, giving it the name Streptomyces barkulensis subsp. lavasanensis in recognition of its Iranian geographical origin.
The discovery underscores the scientific value of Iran’s microbial biodiversity, particularly its soil microorganisms, which may contain previously unexplored compounds with potential pharmaceutical and biotechnological applications.
Both newly identified compounds belong to the anthraquinone derivative family and contain an unusual sugar component. Lavasamycin B also possesses a rare structural feature known as a butenolide unit, distinguishing it from its counterpart.
Laboratory experiments showed that lavasamycin A inhibited the growth of Bacillus subtilis, a gram-positive bacterium, while lavasamycin B did not demonstrate similar activity under the conditions tested. The findings therefore identify lavasamycin A as a compound of interest for further investigation into its biological properties and potential antibiotic applications.
Beyond identifying the two compounds, the researchers investigated the genetic mechanisms responsible for their production. They experimentally confirmed the biosynthetic gene cluster involved in lavasamycin production, identifying it as a type II polyketide synthase cluster.
The team also found that a regulatory protein suppresses the production
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