The rapid emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial pathogens poses a major threat for human health. In recent years, genome sequencing has unveiled many poorly expressed antibiotic clusters in actinomycetes. Here, we report a well-defined ecological collection of >800 actinomycetes obtained from sites in the Himalaya and Qinling mountains, and we used these in a concept study to see how efficiently antibiotics can be elicited against MDR pathogens isolated recently from the clinic. Using 40 different growth conditions, 96 actinomycetes were identified - predominantly Streptomyces - that produced antibiotics with efficacy against the MDR clinical isolates referred to as ESKAPE pathogens: Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and/or Enterobacter cloacae. Antimicrobial activities that fluctuated strongly with growth conditions were correlated with specific compounds, including borrelidin, resistomycin, carbomethoxy-phenazine, and 6,7,8- and 5,6,8-trimethoxy-3-methylisocoumarin, of which the latter was not described previously. Our work provided insights into the potential of actinomycetes as producers of drugs with efficacy against clinical isolates that have emerged recently and also underlined the importance of targeting a specific pathogen.
© 2014 The Authors.