![]() Elders contribute to cooperative offspring care, assist in foraging, and communicate important ecological and cultural knowledge, increasing the survival of younger individuals. Humans are a rare exception, having evolved a prolonged postreproductive lifespan. The individuals of most vertebrate species die when they can no longer reproduce. Overall, our work supports the common belief that moonmilk might effectively treat various infectious diseases thanks to the presence of a highly diverse population of prolific antimicrobial producing Streptomyces, and thus may indeed constitute a promising reservoir of potentially novel active natural compounds. No correlation was observed between the global antimicrobial activity of an individual strain and the number of NRPS and PKS genes predicted in its genome, suggesting that approaches for awakening cryptic metabolites biosynthesis should be applied to isolates with no antimicrobial phenotype. Interestingly, 90% of the cave strains induced strong growth suppression against the multi-drug resistant Rasamsonia argillacea, a causative agent of invasive mycosis in cystic fibrosis and chronic granulomatous diseases. The moonmilk Streptomyces collection was found to display strong inhibitory activities against a wide range of reference organisms, as 94, 71, and 94% of the isolates inhibited or impaired the growth of Gram-positive, Gram-negative bacteria, and fungi, respectively. Phylotype representatives were tested for antibacterial and antifungal activities and their genomes were mined for secondary metabolite biosynthetic genes coding for non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs), and polyketide synthases (PKS). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that all 78 isolates were exclusively affiliated to the genus Streptomyces and clustered into 31 distinct phylotypes displaying various pigmentation patterns and morphological features. In this work, a screening approach was undertaken in order to isolate cultivable Actinobacteria from moonmilk of the Grotte des Collemboles in Belgium, to evaluate their taxonomic profile, and to assess their potential in biosynthesis of antimicrobials. Ancient medical texts reported that moonmilk had therapeutical properties, thereby suggesting that its filamentous endemic actinobacterial population might be a source of natural products useful in human treatment. Moonmilk speleothems of limestone caves host a rich microbiome, among which Actinobacteria represent one of the most abundant phyla. Modern interdisciplinary research has already detected the scientific pathways between cave environments and Disaster Archaeology, as well as the need for the adoption of a more flexible methodological framework which incorporates the caves into the cultural landscapes of modern societies. the famous rock art, the Palaeolithic tool industries, the first fire hearths, burials), along with palaeoanthropological remains of tremendous scientific value, creating thus, unique archaeoenvironments which require autonomous investigating methodologies. Throughout the whole human history, caves and rock shelters have provided Archaeologists, Anthropologists and other scientists of multidisciplinary origin with a plethora of artefacts / mentifacts of our ancestors (e.g. From Palaeolithic Times onward, humans used, worldwide, these geological formations for a variety of reasons. Furthermore, karst formations, apart from their ecological and environmental value, have played a prominent role in the study of man's adventure on Earth. In addition, humans created allegories by transforming the caves into powerful symbols, the Spartan Kaiadas, the Minoan labyrinth/womb, the Platonic cave and the archaeoastronomical archetype of the two portals, being among them. Zeus and Hephaistos, Persephone and Hades, Odysseus, Aiolos and Calypso, the pastoral gods Hermes, Pan and the Nymphs, Centaurs and heroes who were born or nurtured within them, shared these chthonic wombs of life and destruction. Places of death beyond the realm of the livings, nurseries for the gods, shelters for the goddesses, sites for initiation or education, cult sceneries, sites of divine revelation, idyllic environments where the Nymphs lived and played or dwellings of monsters and chthonic creatures, caves' multi-dimensional symbolic motif travelled as psychic 'kit' with Homo Sapiens, all the way into the heart of the Neolithic, and beyond. The circum-Mediterranean area, rich in geodiversity, became the cradle of strong poetic images, symbols of fear, admiration and magic, all related to the mystic world of the caves.
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