Metabolic Profiling and Biological Activities of Bioactive Compounds Produced by Pseudomonas sp. Strain ICTB-745 Isolated from Ladakh, India

In an ongoing survey of the bioactive potential of microorganisms from Ladakh, India, the culture medium of a bacterial strain of a new Pseudomonas sp., strain ICTB-745, isolated from an alkaline soil sample collected from Leh, Ladakh, India, was found to contain metabolites that exhibited broad-spectrum antimicrobial and biosurfactant activities. Bioactivity-guided purification resulted in the isolation of four bioactive compounds. Their chemical structures were elucidated by (1)H and (13)C NMR, 2D-NMR (HMBC, HSQC, (1)H,(1)H-COSY, and DEPT- 135), FT-IR, and mass spectroscopic methods, and were identified as 1-hydroxyphenazine, phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA), rhamnolipid-1 (RL-1), and rhamnolipid-2 (RL-2). These metabolites exhibited various biological activities like antimicrobial and efficient cytotoxic potencies against different human tumor cell lines such as HeLa, HepG2, A549, and MDA MB 231. RL-1 and RL-2 exhibited a dose-dependent antifeedant activity against Spodoptera litura, producing about 82.06% and 73.66% antifeedant activity, whereas PCA showed a moderate antifeedant activity (63.67%) at 60 microgram/cm2 area of castor leaf. Furthermore, PCA, RL-1, and RL-2 exhibited about 65%, 52%, and 47% mortality, respectively, against Rhyzopertha dominica at 20 microgram/ml. This is the first report of rhamnolipids as antifeedant metabolites against Spodoptera litura and as insecticidal metabolites against Rhyzopertha dominica. The metabolites from Pseudomonas sp. strain ICTB-745 have interesting potential for use as a biopesticide in pest control programs.