Scientists commonly use bacteria as tiny factories that can produce molecules for uses ranging from drug development to pollution remediation. Recently, NC State biologist Carlos Goller and former undergraduate students Pushkar Sai and Andrew Hoyek did a deeper dive into Delftia, a bacterial strain that is found everywhere from soil to the kitchen sink, to determine its usefulness in applications such as malarial suppression and gold detoxification.
Goller, Sai and Hoyek sat down with the Abstract to answer a few questions about Delftia.

The Abstract (TA): What is Delftia, and how long have we known about this microbe?

Goller: Delftia is a genus of bacteria found in various environments, including soil, water, human-associated settings, and sludge. The genus name Delftia was proposed in 1999 after reclassification, named after the Dutch city of Delft, from whence it was first isolated in 1926. It was renamed Delftia in 1999.

TA: Is Delftia commonly used by researchers right now? What makes it useful; i.e., what can it do?

Goller: Delftia is not as widely used as classic model microbes like Escherichia coli, but researchers are very interested in it because some strains do unusual and useful chemistry. Specifically, it is known for its metabolic versatility. Depending on the strain, Delftia has been linked to heavy-metal transformations, pollutant degradation, plant-associated traits, and antiparasitic activity in insect hosts. Two especially interesting examples are delftibactin, which helps some strains detoxify gold, and harmane, which has been linked to suppression of malaria parasites in mosquitoes.

TA: What inspired you to do a review of the literature surrounding this microbe?

Sai: My inspiration for this literature review was initially from our own work on the neuroactive chemical harmane. My ASM Microbe poster focused on candidate genes involved in harmane biosynthesis in Delftia tsuruhatensis, so that made me feel connected to the broader literature. I believed that there were several aspects of the genus that are unknown and the need for additional research could be better communicated with a literature review.

Goller: I have been interested in Delftia since we first found DNA sequences of this organism in a survey of kitchen sink drains from students participating in an undergraduate and graduate student microbial genomics (metagenomics) course in 2013. Since then, I have continued reading about Delftia and asking researchers to share their Delftia isolates. This organism has a rich history and great genomic potential. It is an alchemist, an antimalarial producer, and intriguing enough to engage new learners and researchers in learning more about the microbes around us.

Hoyek: After conducting over a year of research involving Delftia acidovorans, particularly developing a detection method for identifying Delftia in soil metagenomic samples, I became interested in the broader biological and biotechnological roles of this organism. That research naturally connected to the ASM minireview, where we examined the diverse small molecules produced by Delftia and the many unanswered questions surrounding its ecological and biomedical potential, emphasizing the need to link genetic variation to metabolite production and resulting phenotype.

TA: What is the most important takeaway from this review process, and what are some possible next steps or questions to be answered about Delftia?

Goller: The main takeaway is that Delftia shows real promise, but many of its most interesting traits still need stronger experimental support. In several cases, we can see an effect, but we do not yet fully know which genes are responsible or how broadly that trait is shared across strains.

Sai: The next step is more targeted research. Specifically, with harmane: we need to identify the biosynthetic genes, confirm the pathway chemically, and directly test gene function. More broadly, the field needs to map small-molecule pathways across different Delftia strains to determine which activities are reproducible and useful.

This post was originally published in NC State News.