Isolation and Charaterization of Marine Actinomycetes as a Source for Novel Bioactive Metabolites

Abstract

Marine actinomycetes represent an underexploited source for the discovery of novel secondary metabolites. The exploitation of marine actinomycetes as a source for novel bioactive metabolites is in its infancy. Even with the limited screening efforts that have been dedicated to date to marine actinomycetes, the discovery rate of novel bioactive metabolites from marine actinomycetes has recently surpassed that of their terrestrial counterparts, as evident by the isolation of many new compounds from marine actinomycetes. There is a tremendous potential for the isolation of novel secondary metabolites from marine actinomycetes. In this respect, future success relies on our ability to isolate novel actinomycetes from the marine environments. Our investigations using enrichment techniques, new selection methods and media have led to the isolation of marine actinomycetes from marine samples. We present here the isolation method and characterization of marine-derived actinomycetes from various marine samples.