1. Introduction
Natural compounds derived from living organisms show great chemical diversity and tremendous promise for finding new compounds with novel modes of action. Many organisms found in nature (fungi, plants and bacteria) produce antimicrobial compounds as secondary metabolites to compete with other organisms [
1,
2,
3]. One of the biocontrol sources of
Photorhabdus and
Xenorhabdus genera show novel antimicrobial peptides. These bacteria encode several putative biosynthetic pathways for natural product biosynthesis and are involved in ecological functions [
4,
5]. Remarkably,
Photorhabdus and
Xenorhabdus symbiotic bacteria are associated with entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) which are obligate and lethal insect parasites [
6,
7]. Once nematodes enter into insect, it releases their symbiotic bacteria into the insect hemolymph, within 2 to 3 days, the insect killed by bacterial toxins and enzymes [
8,
9].
Appropriate methods are required to utilize bacterial extracellular products for pest control and drug discovery applications. These symbiotic bacteria occur in the digestive tract of infective juveniles when in their primary phase but will transform into a secondary phase under in vitro conditions. Furthermore, biocontrol mechanisms of bacterial symbionts, in turn, kill the host and proliferate. To maintain suitable conditions for nematode reproduction, a nutrient supply and antimicrobial substances that inhibit the growth of a wide range of microorganisms within and outside the cadaver are required. There is space for production of supplementary bioactive compounds as uncharacterized secondary metabolites by these symbionts. The biosynthesis of antimicrobial and nematicidal metabolites strongly suggests that they inhibit consumption of the insect cadaver by competing organisms. The bacteria can be grown as free-living organisms in ideal laboratory conditions. Under unique temperature, pH and humidity conditions, they release a wide variety of virulent factors including high molecular weight toxin complexes; lipopolysaccharides; proteases; and arrays of different antibiotics, all of which can be assayed in the culture media.
Most species of
Xenorhabdus and
Photorhabdus produce more than one group of active secondary metabolites, and the metabolites from
Xenorhabdus are more diverse than those of
Photorhabdus [
10,
11]. These metabolites are extensively involved in a range of bioactivities in both pharmaceutical and agricultural fields [
12] such as antibiotic, antimycotic, insecticidal, nematicidal, antiulcer, antineoplastic, and antiviral uses [
13]. Consequently, nematode symbiotic bacteria can be considered an original source for potential biomedical applications [
14]. The symbiotic bacteria have complex life cycles, and their insect hosts die rapidly due to production of insecticidal bacterial toxins [
15]. Numerous studies will be needed to better understand symbiotic bacteria and their secretions. Various kinds of antibiotics against bacteria and fungi are synthesized and secreted within bacterial cultures of symbiotic bacteria [
16]. Against this background, the present time is ideal for the exploration and production of bacterial metabolites for the control of bacterial pathogens. In the study described herein, the extraction of crude metabolites of
Xenorhabdus and
Photorhabdus is carried out with the goal of antimicrobial application development. These findings will afford better understanding of bacterial symbiont metabolites that can yield novel compounds useful for agricultural and pharmaceutical applications.
3. Discussion
These symbiotic bacteria are closely related to the family Enterobacteriaceae. The phylogeny of these organisms is well-defined in the sense that they are clearly placed in the gamma group of proteobacteria [
35]. Each isolate was associated with a distinct bacterial genus belonging to different
X. stockiae and
P. luminescens. Only a few strains of the symbiotic bacteria have been described and studied in detail, and their molecular biology has been described by [
36]. The primary phase is the major antibiotic producing phase, whereas the second phase produces fewer antibiotic molecules. Bacteria in this genus have also been proven to be resource-rich in natural products such as insecticidal toxins, insect immune system inhibitors, and a variety of antibiotics that facilitate the infection of nematodes [
37]. These metabolites have been used in biological pesticides and therapeutic agents for many decades [
38]. Admittedly, we exhibited the screening of antimicrobial crude secondary metabolites extracted from bacterial strains was carried out for further characterization.
The broad-spectrum peak at 3443 cm-1 corresponds to strong stretching vibrations of the hydroxyl functional group [
39]. The bands at 1100 and 1637 cm-1 correspond to the ANAH and carbonyl (CAOA) stretching vibrations in amide linkages (amide I and amide II) of protein present in bacterial supernatant [
40]. The small peak at 621 cm-1 is characteristic of carbonyl stretching vibrations in the amide II functional group [
41]. The observed FT-IR spectrum results confirmed presence of the hydroxyl functional group as well as slight shift changes in all peak positions and absorption bands. These features may also be responsible for antimicrobial and anticancer properties.
Xenorhabdus spp. have been reported to produce antimicrobial activity; indole compounds identified in culture broths of several
Xenorhabdus spp. showed antibacterial and antifungal activity [
42,
43].
Xenocoumacins are polyketide-derived compounds produced by Xenorhabdus bacteria. In GC-MS outcomes pyrrolidine functional group involved in the late steps of xenocoumacin production. These compounds have been shown to possess antimicrobial activity against a variety of bacteria, including Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens. Xenocoumacins exert their antimicrobial effects by inhibiting bacterial RNA polymerase, leading to the suppression of bacterial growth and viability. Additionally, GC-MS results showed that
P. luminescens produced secondary metabolites of 1-tetradecanol compounds. Recently, these compounds were extracted from nematode symbiotic bacteria and evaluated against insect pathogens (
Pieris rapae and
Pentodon algerinus) [
44]. Another important and previously evaluated secondary metabolite compound; 1, 2, benzenedicarboxylic acid; represents a potential antibacterial agent. Similarly, different kinds of
Xenorhabdus strains produce many bioactive compounds including antibacterial, antifungal and cytotoxicity [
45]. Furthermore, octadecanoic acid and methyl ester extracted from
Photorhabdus bacteria, have potential antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antibacterial activities based on earlier studies [
46,
47]. Photorhabdus bacteria produce phenazines, nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds with broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity. Phenazines act by generating reactive oxygen species within bacterial cells, causing oxidative damage to proteins, lipids, and DNA. This oxidative stress ultimately leads to bacterial cell death. Another critical extracted compound in this study, Phthalic acid, Indole-3-acetic aci and Oleic Acid was also extracted by [
48]. They screened anti-protozoal activity of supernatants containing secondary metabolites produced by
Photorhabdus and
Xenorhabdus species against antiprotozoal compounds using the easy PACId approach (easy Promoter Activated Compound Identification) method [
49]. Admittedly, Bacterial species in genera
Xenorhabdus and
Photorhabdus can produce various secondary metabolites to maintain their mutualistic symbiosis with the host entomopathogenic nematode. This study assessed all metabolites extracted with ethyl acetate solvents from bacterial culture broth of
Xenorhabdus and
Photorhabdus to identify their virulent secondary metabolites against bacterial pathogens.
Antimicrobial and growth inhibitory effects can be attributed to either the bacteria or its metabolites [
50,
51,
52]. Our result positively correlates with [
53,
54]. Moreover, the antibacterial assay time for suppress the
E. coli, S. aureus, E. faceium, P. vulgaris, B. cereus, and
B. subtilis was inhibited bacterial pathogens. Particularly, in the present study
X. stockiae could strongly inhibit the growth of 06 strains of pathogenic bacteria, compared to
P. luminescences; Which is followed by
E. coli, S. aureus and
E. faceium. This scenario established that
X. stockiae has the potential inhibition activity against bacterial pathogens. General action of antibacterial activity through different mechanisms according to [
55,
56].
Figure 5 displays the mechanisms of antimicrobial action against pathogens using secondary metabolites of bacterial symbionts. For instance, inhibition of bacterial cell wall membrane by alteration of amino acid sugar in linear form that cross-link through peptidoglycan layer and inhibition of biochemical pathways such as nucleic acid metabolism, translation, and transportation. On the other hand, changes in cell membrane integrity by electrostatic interaction combined with negatively charged membrane for the cell death. Additional interesting view is (1) inhibition of DNA synthesis via cross linking DNA; (2) prevention of DNA relaxation via activation DNA topoisomerase I; (3) disrupting the protein-folding cycle (4) proteolytic activity causing the degradation of DNA-RNA-Protein replication, leads to cell damages.
Based on previous reports we established antimicrobial compounds from
Xenorhabdus spp. and P
hotorhabdus spp. may inhibit bacterial growth [
57]. This is the right time finding the antimicrobial mechanism of specific target on bacterial cell membrane for the novel antimicrobial drug discovery. For example,
Xenorhabdus inhibited the growth of closely related bacteria, whereas metabolic compounds were effective against a range of plant pathogens and some mammal disease pathogens [
58,
59,
60,
61]. On the other hand, such antimicrobial compounds present in the culture extract of
Photorhabdus bacteria have the potential to be exploited for use against a wide range of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria that pose challenges in medical and agricultural fields [
62]. Similarly, our effects of antibacterial inhibition of
P. luminescens against pathogens were certainly associated with [
63]. These compounds are predominantly broad-spectrum antibacterial that are highly active against a wide range of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria of medical and agricultural importance. According to [
64], siderophore production is an Entomopathogenic characteristic of the
Photorhabdus spp. through which they chelate the Fe
3+ from the hemolymph, leaving the insect deprived of Fe
3+ and subsequently killing it. Consequently, we studied novel antibacterial agents, predominantly bacterial products from various origins and geographic locations. Here, investigations were undertaken to find novel antibacterial agents from symbiotic bacteria (
Xenorhabdus and
Photorhabdus). Ideally, in the near future, their structures, biosynthesis, and mechanisms of action will be elucidated, and their production will be optimized.