Coastal Sediments of La Paz Bay BCS: Bacteria Reserve with Biotechnological Potential

Coastal marine sediments are ecosystems rich in nutrients and microorganisms, these environments are considered to be highly competitive, so these microorganisms have developed strategies that allow them to regulate or inhibit the growth of other microbial populations. In sediments obtained from different locations in the La Paz Bay, in Baja California Sur México, different microorganisms have been identified that, according to their morphological, biochemical and molecular characteristics, belong to a group of Gram-positive bacteria known as actinobacteria. These bacteria have been shown to have the ability to grow in extreme conditions of low nutrient concentrations, and have the capacity of generating micro-ecosystems based on the production of secondary metabolites that allow them to develop properly in that ecosystem. Among the genera present in these ecosystems, the genus Streptomyces stands out. Cultures of this bacterium, extracellular extracts rich in peptides and other low molecular weight bioactive compounds have been obtained, which have been shown to have antimicrobial effect against different pathogenic strains. Thanks to the identification and characterization of the strains present in the microbial communities through massive sequencing techniques, it has been possible to infer the mechanisms by which these strains can carry out the synthesis of antimicrobial compounds. Knowing the genes involved in the synthesis of these metabolites, it is possible to design the appropriate mechanisms to carry out production at the laboratory level and to evaluate their activity using in silico and in vitro tools. The objective of this proposal is to describe the species of actinomycetes that have been identified in the bay, that present antimicrobial activity and that are potentially useful for their subsequent use at the semi-industrial level.