Pyrrhoderma noxium is a plant fungal pathogen that induces the disease of brown root rot in a large variety of tree species. It is currently infecting many of the amenity trees within Brisbane City of Queensland, Australia. Steering away from harmful chemical fungicides, biological control agents offer environmentally friendly alternatives. Streptomycetes are known for their production of novel bioactive secondary metabolites with biocontrol potential, particularly, streptomycete symbionts isolated from unique ecological niches. In this study, 37 termite gut-associated actinomycete isolates were identified using molecular methods and screened against P. noxium. A majority of the isolates belonged to the genus Streptomyces, and 15 isolates exhibited strong antifungal activity with up to 98.5% mycelial inhibition of the fungal pathogen. MS/MS molecular networking analysis of the isolates' fermentation extracts revealed several chemical classes with polyketides being among the most abundant. Most of the metabolites, however, did not have matches to the GNPS database, indicating potential novel antifungal compounds in the active extracts obtained from the isolates. Pathway enrichment and overrepresentation analyses revealed pathways relating to polyketide antibiotic production, among other antibiotic pathways, further confirming the biosynthetic potential of the termite gut-associated streptomycetes with biocontrol potential against P. noxium.
Keywords: Pyrrhoderma noxium; Streptomyces; antifungal compounds; biological control; mass spectrometry; metabolomics; molecular networking; streptomycetes; termite gut symbiosis; termites.