The deep-sea constitutes a true unexplored frontier and a potential source of innovative drug scaffolds. Here, we present the genome sequence of two novel marine actinobacterial strains, MA3_2.13 and S07_1.15, isolated from deep-sea samples (sediments and sponge) and collected at Madeira archipelago (NE Atlantic Ocean; Portugal). The de novo assembly of both genomes was achieved using a hybrid strategy that combines short-reads (Illumina) and long-reads (PacBio) sequencing data. Phylogenetic analyses showed that strain MA3_2.13 is a new species of the Streptomyces genus, whereas strain S07_1.15 is closely related to the type strain of Streptomyces xinghaiensis. In silico analysis revealed that the total length of predicted biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) accounted for a high percentage of the MA3_2.13 genome, with several potential new metabolites identified. Strain S07_1.15 had, with a few exceptions, a predicted metabolic profile similar to S. xinghaiensis. In this work, we implemented a straightforward approach for generating high-quality genomes of new bacterial isolates and analyse in silico their potential to produce novel NPs. The inclusion of these in silico dereplication steps allows to minimize the rediscovery rates of traditional natural products screening methodologies and expedite the drug discovery process.
Keywords: Streptomyces; de novo assembly; deep-sea actinobacteria; genome mining; natural products.