"BACTERIAL DIVERSITY OF THE GORGONIAN CORAL Plexaura sp.: SCREENING FOR ANTI-PATHOGENIC PROPERTY AGAINST NOSOCOMIAL PATHOGENIC Acinetobacter baumannii "

Chronic infectious diseases caused by biofilm-forming pathogenic bacteria are the second rank causes of death in Indonesia after heart and blood vessel diseases. The emergence of antibiotic-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii pathogenic bacteria worldwide poses the main medicinal challenge to the search for new antibiotics. However, the use of marine invertebrates as raw material sources is not ecologically friendly due to the low concentration of bioactive compounds in marine invertebrates. This study aimed to investigate gorgonian Plexaura sp.-associated bacteria that have the potential as anti-nosocomial pathogenic A. baumannii. A total of 29 gorgonian Plexaura sp.-associated bacterial isolates were screened for their antibacterial activity against nosocomial pathogenic A. baumannii. The 5 bacterial isolates exhibited antipathogenic activity against A. baumannii. The RA17-2 isolate showed the highest diameter size of the inhibition zone. The 16S rRNA sequence analyses revealed that these 5 isolates were closely related to Bacillus, Virgibacillus, and Nitratireductor. None of the 5 antipathogenic isolates possess PKS-I, PKS-II, and NRPS genes, except the PKS-I gene of the RA17-2 isolate. These results showed that Plexauridae sp is a potential source for the development of antibiotic drugs.