Discovery of Bioactive Secondary Metabolites from Marine Actinomycetes

Abstract

There is tremendous potential for the isolation of novel bioactive metabolites from marine microorganisms. From the marine samples such as deep sea and shallow water sediments, plants and invertebrates, more than 4,000 strains of marine-derived actinomycetes were isolated. These marine actinomycetes produce different types of new secondary metabolites. We have established that about 10% of isolates show some bioactivity in our assays such as cytotoxicity, antimicrobial, antifungal, and enzyme inhibitory activities and many of the metabolites from marine actinomycetes have the potential to be developed as therapeutic agents. Marine actinomycetes are a prolific but underexploited source for the discovery of novel bioactive metabolites.