ANTICANCER AND ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF MARINE ACTINOMYCETES

The Actinomycetes are a phylum of mostly gram-positive bacteria. Actinomycetes can
be found mostly in soil and decaying organic matter, as well as in living organisms
such as humans and animals. They can also be seen in rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere
soil. They can be terrestrial or aquatic. They are of great economic importance to
humans because agriculture and forests depend on their contributions to soil systems.
Many of the Actinomycetes have the ability to synthesise metabolites which hinder
the growth of bacteria. Marine Actinomycetes are efficient producers of new secondary metabolites that show a range of biological activities including antibacterial,
antifungal, anticancer, insecticidal and enzyme inhibition. Several aerobic Actinomycetes have been a major source of interest for the commercial drug industry and
have proved to be extremely useful microorganisms for producing novel antimicrobial
agents. They have also been well known as potential veterinary pathogens affecting
many different animal species. Antimicrobial activity can be defined as a collective
term for all active principles (agents) that inhibit the growth of bacteria, prevent the
formation of microbial colonies, and may destroy microorganisms. A great number of
antitumor compounds are natural products or their derivatives, mainly produced by
microorganisms. In particular, Actinomycetes are the producers of a large number of natural products with different biological activities, including antitumor properties. Antitumor activity was studied by the MTT assay and DNA target activity was studied by the biochemical induction assay while antimicrobial activity was determined by observing bacterial and fungal growth inhibition. Marine organisms have attracted special attention in the last years for their ability to produce interesting pharmacological lead compounds.