Isolation and characterization of marine sediment bacteria capable of biocatalyzing bromination of indole

The presence of naturally occurring halometabolites in the marine environment has led to studies focusing on the search for organisms capable of biocatalyzing halogenation reactions. In this study, we isolated two marine sediment bacteria (WK7 and WK12) from Mokpo, Jeollanam-do, South Korea with 99% identity to parts of the 16S rDNA of bacterial species Shewanella marisflavi and Pseudoalteromonas prydzensis, capable of biohalogenation activity based on the monochlorodimedone (MCD) assay. Isolate P. prydzensis WK12 (KP893638) produced compounds from indole with molecular ion peaks m/z 262.06 and 342.03 possibly corresponding to indigo and monobromoindigo. Likewise, S. marisflavi WK7 (KP893637) was speculated to have produced indigo and dibromoindigo (m/z 262.4 and 420.57) from indole. This is the first report on marine sediment bacteria capable of biocatalyzing bromination of indole as resting whole cells.