Searching for Beneficial Bacteria along the Slopes of Mount Mayon
- Written by UPLB Professor Emeritus and NAST Academician Dr. Asuncion K. Raymundo
- Published in Stories from the Field
My academic career had its beginning at UPLB in 1966. After graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1980, my job as adviser of students pursuing graduate studies in microbiology began.
Kristel Perdigon was one of those students intent on obtaining a Master’s Degree in Microbiology. When she entered UPLB in 2010, she chose me as her adviser and I, in turn, asked Dr. Rina Opulencia, who was then embarking on her career, to serve as co-adviser under a mentee-mentor advisorship.
My research projects at that time were on antimicrobials and the diversity of bacterial communities in adverse environments. Kristel, hailing from Bicol Region, thought of exploring the environment of Mount Mayon, located in the Albay province. We were convinced that the idea was good, as no microbiological studies had been done on Mount Mayon at that time.
Kristel subsequently prepared a thesis proposal which was approved by her thesis committee. During one semestral break, she went home to Bicol, visited the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology local office for a permit to obtain soil samples, and proceeded to ascend the majestic slopes of Mount Mayon accompanied by a hiking guide and several students from Bicol University.
Their ascent reached 1400 meters above sea level while sampling at different altitudes. Interestingly, there was a moment when they were forced to speed up their collection process due to sulfur fumes arising from the cascading water beneath the rocks.The ensuing wet lab activity consisting of working on the samples, specifically isolating the bacteria from the different samples, was a challenge made more real by limited funding support from her Department of Science and Technology (DOST) scholarship grant.
Additional support fortunately came, in the form of my Professor Emeritus Grant and partially from the UPLB Basic Research Grant awarded to Dr. Opulencia. After three years, when Kristel’s DOST scholarship ended, she worked as a research assistant in our project with Dr. Opulencia.
In 2015, Kristel finally graduated with a Master’s Degree in Microbiology. She then found work as a research assistant at the International Rice Research Institute, and later at the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine.
In the midst of this flurry of activities, we managed to write an article from a portion of Kristel’s thesis results titled, “Prokaryotic Community Profiles of Soils from Mayon Volcano, Philippines based on 16S Ribosomal RNA Gene Sequences”. A fruit of our mentee-mentor advisorship, this was published in 2016 in the Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences.
In the said article, we discussed the microbial community profiles of Mayon Volcano based on genetic analysis, specifically the 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We found ten bacterial phyla or groups, including an unclassified one. The most dominant phylum among these was the Acidobacteria. Archaea, species of both bacteria and of the third domain, were also detected from the samples. The composition of the prokaryotic community suggests roles in the cycling of organic and inorganic nutrients in Mayon Volcano’s ecosystem.
Our study provided the first known information on the prokaryotic composition of Mount Mayon, including the soil properties that influenced the structuring of these communities.
In 2018, Kristel secured a teaching position at the Microbiology Division of the UPLB Institute of Biological Sciences (IBS), and I encouraged her to continue working on her isolates. In January 2019, Albert Remus Rosana – a former student and colleague – visited IBS and told me about his research work and his laboratory facilities at the University of Alberta. I introduced Kristel to him and consequently discussed possible collaboration about inquiry on the genetic insights of her isolates.
Further, I encouraged Kristel to apply for another UPLB Basic Research Grant with Albert and I as collaborators. Under Albert’s tutelage, Kristel dealt with the genetic analysis of her isolates. Kristel also eventually collaborated with local scientists – Prof. Andrew Montecillo of IBS and Dr. Arian Jacildo of the UPLB Institute of Computer Science – for further quantitative analysis of her genetic results. This, along with additional information from Albert, solidified our data and allowed us to write another article for publication.
The journal article is titled, “Genomic Insights into the Antimicrobial and Anticancer Potential of Streptomyces sp. A1-08 Isolated from Volcanic Soils of Mount Mayon Philippines,” where the late Dr. Teofila O. Zulaybar was also our co-author.
Soon to be published in the Philippine Journal of Science’s December 2021 issue, our study underscores the development of resistance of pathogens to established antibiotics and the phenomenon being a global threat to humanity. Kristel’s focus on the actinomycetes group also asserts the need for continuous search of additional antibiotic sources, especially from unexplored environments like volcanoes.
Several actinomycetes have been isolated from volcanic soil samples collected from Mount Mayon. A total of 13 out of 30 morphologically distinct actinomycete isolates showed inhibitory activity against test microorganisms. Isolate A1-08 exhibited inhibitory activity against several pathogens including those causing pneumonia, and other infections like those caused by Staphylococcus aureus which cannot be controlled by regular antibiotics.
Among the isolates, A1-08 had the highest potential and showed anticancer activity against the human colorectal cancer (HCT116) cell line. Further analysis of its genome showed groups of genes responsible for the production of known and potentially novel compounds that are involved in antibiotic and anticancer activities.
Streptomyces sp. A1-08 strain has created a rare and welcomed excitement to microbiologists as it is clearly a species that has never been reported. If and when it has been characterized, it will be named Streptomyces mayonensis, in honor of Mayon Volcano and our country.
The road ahead – before we see results and eventual application of our findings – is long and winding. Sustained and unrelenting effort is needed towards completion of required experiments, and evaluation tests. We may also have to look at commercialization, where we will be required to have an industry partner. Support from funding agencies is a critical component. Without which, everything runs dry.
However, this work has shown the importance of collaborations, hard work, and passion for research in the objective of advancing Philippine science.
