Exploring the antimicrobial potential of Pardosa brevivulva silk

Abstract

Pardosa is the genus of wolf spiders erected by C. L. Koch, 1847, currently represented by 549 species worldwide and 40 species from India. The present investigation deals with the first report of Pardosa brevivulva (Tanaka, Bulletin of the Biogeographical Society of Japan 31:21-24, 1975) in India from the mango and soybean fields of Latur District, Maharashtra. The species level identification was carried out on the basis of morphological characters and 18S rRNA gene sequencing. The silk of Pardosa brevivulva (Tanaka, Bulletin of the Biogeographical Society of Japan 31:21-24, 1975) was tested for its antimicrobial potential against test microbes. The bioactive fraction of Pardosa brevivulva silk was characterized for antimicrobial compounds by FT-IR, 13C & 1H NMR, and C18 column RP-HPLC analysis. The silk was able to inhibit the growth of B. megaterium, S. typhi, K. pneumoniae, A. flavus, C. albicans, U. maydis, and A. solani. It can be surmised from the present investigation that the Pardosa brevivulva silk has good antimicrobial potential with useful bactericidal and fungicidal properties.