Microbial World #7 Halocin: Bacteriocin from Halobacteria

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The nature's own creation of self defense "Halocin"

Hey Steemians,

Today let’s just talk about antimicrobial agents which are produced by microbes which hinders the growth of other microbes, to remain in an upper hand situation in this competitive world. So today I will talk about Halocin- Halocin are group of Bacteriocin which are produced by halophilic Archaea (thrives in high salt condition).

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So what are Bacteriocins?? They are proteinaceous toxins produced bacteria to inhibit the growth of other closely related bacterial strains. It was discovered by Andre Gratia in 1925. Bacteriocins are produced by both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria and they are classified on the basis of various criteria like method of killing, size of peptide, origin of bacteria (chromosomal or plasmid), method of production (Wikipedia).

However Halocin differs from other Bacteriocin as they are broad spectrum in nature and generally Bacteriocin are active only against close relative strains (O'Connor EM, Shand RF. Halocins and sulfolobicins: the emerging story of archaeal protein and peptide antibiotics).Halocin require high salt concentration to maintain its activity.

Haloferax mediterranei M2a produces Halocin H1 Source

Action mechanism of Bacteriocins is less explored. In a work of Rodriguez Valera from Universidada de Alicante from Spain in 1986 have shown that Halocin H4 activity on Halobacterium halobium. It induced deformation in the target cell. It showed less effect on inhibiting macromolecule synthesis, inhibitor of cell wall synthesis and cytoplasmic alterations. The major effect was on sodium ion and hydrogen ion antiporter channels (1).

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In 1994 Tetsuya Konishi group has shown in their work the inhibition activity of Halocin on Halobacteria by inhibiting the Na+/H+ antiporter. H6 binds firmly to the whole cells and vesicles of Halobacterium halobium and inhibits the light induced sodium ion outflow and also slowed the movement of hydrogen ion (2).

The Halocin are useful in industry to stop the growth of other microbes. In leather industry chemical agents are used to stop growth of many halophilic microbes as they may grow in due to high salt concentration which is used for hide preservation. So in place of using chemical agents Halocin can be used to inhibit the growth of halophiles (3).

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Along with industrial use it has been also shown that it can be used in human medicines. Soria group from Instituto de Biomedica in 2006 has shown that Halocin H6 from Haloferax gibbonsii can be used as inhibitor of Na+/H+ exchanger in mammalian cells. The property of Halocin of acting on ion channel is used to treat injured myocardium. The properties of H6 (a) easy metabolized (b) works at high salt and high temperature (c) active even in presence of trypsin (d) effective even at low concentration makes it suitable for human use and treatment of ischemia and reperfusion (4).