Molecular bioprospecting of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Streptomyces </i>sp.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> </i>(ES5) from marine alga <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Hypnea musiformis</i>

Abstract

The marine environment is a rich source of both biological and chemical diversity. This diversity has been the source of unique chemical compounds with the potential for industrial development as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, nutritional supplements, molecular probes, enzymes, fine chemicals and agrochemicals. As the role of endosymbionts in secondary metabolite synthesis is not well studied so far, the present study was initiated to develop preliminary data for the molecular bioprospecting of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Streptomyces</i> sp. associated with the brown alga, <i>Hypnea musciformis. </i>At present, little is known about the diversity, stability and specificity of communities that inhabited microenvironments in marine. It was found that the isolated <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Streptomyces</i> sp. successfully prevented the growth of Gram positive bacteria to an extent of 85%. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Micrococcus luteus</i> was found highly sensitive to ECP (extra cellular product) and the protein fraction of isolate ES5, followed by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Bacillus subtilis</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">B. cereus</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Escherichia coli</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Proteus vulgaris</i>. The analysis presented here indicates that PCR-based techniques can be a powerful tool for estimating the diversity of microbial populations but only limited quantitative conclusions are possible.