Isolation and characterisation of antibiotic-producing marine actinomycetes

Resistance to antibiotics poses a serious threat to healthcare and new drugs are needed. This is especially true for tuberculosis (TB), which is at epidemic levels in South Africa. Multidrug-resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis makes TB more difficult and expensive to treat and increases mortality rates. The surfaces of 12 seaweed species found in South African coastal waters were screened for the presence of antibiotic-producing actinomycetes. Of the 67 strains isolated, 26 exhibited antibacterial activity against Mycobacterium aurum A+ and for Enterococcus faecium VanA. These actinomycete strains were physiologically characterised. Three strains showing very strong antibacterial activity were further characterised by the use of chemical taxonomy, DNA sequencing and scanning electron microscopy and were shown to belong to the genus Streptomyces. A strain not showing activity was shown by the same methods to belong to the genus Micromonospora. Partial purification of the active compounds was carried out on the three strains exhibiting strong antibacterial activity. All were shown to produce moderately to highly polar compounds.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology

Year dc:date.issued

2003

Author dc:creator

• Porter, Donovan Stuart

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Meyers, Paul

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8591

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/8591