Abstract

STUDY OF BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS FROM POTENTIAL MARINE MICROORGANISMS

Amrita M. Bhatia*, Mansura S. Mulani, Iram Dalal and Afnan Shaikh

Abstract

Research on marine bacteria has highlighted the tremendous potential of microorganisms as a source of new bioactive secondary metabolites and it is reported that most of the marine bacterial pigments exhibit antimicrobial activity. Despite of great difficulty in isolating and harvesting marine bacteria, their metabolites are increasingly attractive to science because of their broad-ranging pharmacological activities especially those with unique colour pigments. Bacterial pigments offer promising avenues for various applications in industries like food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, textiles due to their biodegradability and higher compatibility with the environment. Marine Actinomycetes survive in extreme conditions such as high salinity, low temperature and are able to produce bioactive secondary metabolites which are stable at extreme conditions and show antiparasitic, antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal and antitumor activities. Actinomycetes and pigmented organisms were isolated from marine water sample. The extracted bacterial pigments had antibacterial activity. The antibiotic sensitivity of the pigment was further checked. DNA extraction and PCR analysis was performed. Morphological studies and gene sequencing confirmed the presence of bacterial strain Salinococcus roseus and Micrococcus endophyticus and Actinomycetes: Streptomyces werraensis. Further studies could prove antioxidant and anti-cancerous properties of the pigment.

Keywords: Metabolites, pigment, antibacterial activity, antibiotic sensitivity.