Pseudomonassin, a new bioactive ribosomally synthesised and post-translationally modified peptide from Pseudomonas sp. SST3

Genome mining and metabolomics have become valuable tools in natural products research to evaluate and identify potential new chemistry from bacteria. In the search for new compounds from the deep-sea organism, Pseudomonas sp. SST3, from the South Shetland Trough, Antarctica, a co-cultivation with a second deep-sea Pseudomonas zhaodongensis SST2, was undertaken to isolate pseudomonassin, a ribosomally synthesised and post-translationally modified peptide (RiPP) that belongs to a class of RiPP called lasso peptides. Pseudomonassin was identified using a genome-mining approach and isolated by means of mass spectrometric guided isolation. Extensive metabolomics analysis of the co-cultivation of Pseudomonas sp. SST3 and P. zhaodongensis SST2, Pseudomonas sp. SST3 and Escherichia coli, and P. zhaodongensis SST2 and E. coli were performed using principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal projections to latent structures discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), which revealed potential new metabolites in the outlier regions of the co-cultivation, with other metabolites identified previously from other species of Pseudomonas. The sequence of pseudomonassin was completely deduced using high collision dissociation tandem mass spectrometry (HCD-MS/MS). Preliminary studies on its activity against the pathogenic P. aeruginosa and its biofilm formation have been assessed and produced a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 63 μg/mL and 28 μg/mL, respectively.