Tedesco, PietroEsposito, Fortunato Palmavan Zyl, Leonardo Joaquim2022-02-172022-02-172021Tedesco, P. et al. (2021). Isolation and characterization of strain exiguobacterium sp. Krl4, a producer of bioactive secondary metabolites from a Tibetan glacier. Microorganisms, 9(5),890. https://doi.org/10.3390 /microorganisms90508902076-2607https://doi.org/10.3390 /microorganisms9050890http://hdl.handle.net/10566/7278Extremophilic microorganisms represent a unique source of novel natural products. Among them, cold adapted bacteria and particularly alpine microorganisms are still underexplored. Here, we describe the isolation and characterization of a novel Gram-positive, aerobic rod-shaped alpine bacterium (KRL4), isolated from sediments from the Karuola glacier in Tibet, China. Complete phenotypic analysis was performed revealing the great adaptability of the strain to a wide range of temperatures (5–40 ◦C), pHs (5.5–8.5), and salinities (0–15% w/v NaCl). Genome sequencing identified KRL4 as a member of the placeholder genus Exiguobacterium_A and annotation revealed that only half of the protein-encoding genes (1522 of 3079) could be assigned a putative function. An analysis of the secondary metabolite clusters revealed the presence of two uncharacterized phytoene synthase containing pathways and a novel siderophore pathway. Biological assays confirmed that the strain produces molecules with antioxidant and siderophore activities. Furthermore, intracellular extracts showed nematocidal activity towards C. elegans, suggesting that strain KRL4 is a source of anthelmintic compounds.enCold-environmentBiosynthetic gene clusterGenome miningTibetan glacierNovel natural productsArticle