Isolation and characterization of marine Brevibacillus sp. S-1 collected from South China Sea and a novel antitumor peptide produced by the strain.

A Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacterium, designated as S-1, was isolated from a marine sediment sample collected from South China Sea. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that S-1 belongs to the genus Brevibacillus. A novel cytotoxic peptide was isolated from the fermentation broth of the marine-derived bacterium Brevibacillus sp. S-1, using ion-exchange chromatography and reverse-phase HPLC chromatography. The molecular weight of this peptide was determined as 1570 Da by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, and its structure was proposed as a cyclic peptide elucidated by MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry and de novo sequencing. 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay showed that this peptide exhibited cytotoxicity against BEL-7402 human hepatocellular carcinoma cells, RKO human colon carcinoma cells, A549 human lung carcinoma cells, U251 human glioma cells and MCF-7 human breast carcinoma cells. Additionally, SBP exhibited low cytotoxicity against HFL1 human normal fibroblast lung cells. The result suggested that the cytotoxic effect of the peptide is specific to tumor cells.