THERMOPHILIC ACTINOMYCETES ARE POTENTIAL SOURCE OF NOVEL BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS: A REVIEW

*Aditi Agarwal and Nupur Mathur

ABSTRACT

Actinomycetes are one of the most efficient groups of microorganisms in terms of producing commercially important bioactive compounds such as enzymes, antibiotics and pigments. Among its various genera, Streptomyces, Saccharopolyspora, Amycolatopsis, Micromonospora, Actinoplanes are the major producers of industrially important biomolecules. Several species have been isolated and screened from variety of terrestrial and aquatic habitats in the past decades. Consequently the chances of isolating a novel strain of actinomycetes which could provide novel biomolecules has considerably reduced. However there is still an urgent need for discovering novel secondary metabolites to combat the problem of arising number of resistant pathogenic bacteria and increasing need of more efficient enzymes in pharmaceutical industries. For this reason, searching the less or unexplored ecosystems might lead to the discovery of novel bioactive compounds. Studies in recent years showed that the existence of actinomycetes has been reported in the unexplored extreme habitats. Among them thermophilic actinomycetes are reported to be efficient producers of new secondary metabolites that show a range of biological activities including antibacterial, antifungal and extracellular enzyme production.

Keywords: Thermophilic Actinomycetes, Bioactive Compounds, Drug Resistance.