Bioactive Compounds from Marine Actinomycetes

• Published in: Marine Microbiology pp. 207 - 222
• Main Authors: Íñiguez‐Martínez, Ana M, Guerra‐Rivas, Graciela, Ayala‐Sánchez, Nahara E, Soria‐Mercado, Irma E
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Wiley 2013; Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA
• Subjects: actinomycetes; antibiotic activity; CHEMISTRY; cytotoxic effect; marine bacteria; secondary metabolites
• ISBN: 3527333274; 9783527333271
• DOI: 10.1002/9783527665259.ch12

The order Actinomycetales is the most known prolific bacterial source of structurally diverse secondary metabolites. Academic and pharmaceutical researchers have been working on soil‐derived actinomycetes since 55 years and more than 15 000 bioactive molecules are produced from these microbes, with many of them being used as drugs even today. The belief that actinomycetes isolated from marine sources were largely of terrestrial origin and existed in the ocean as metabolically inactive spores has been recently discarded, since phylogenetic analyses of their 16S rRNA genes indicate that many of these strains belong to a new taxa widely distributed in ocean sediments, including some that appear to be unique with proved antitumor effects. They also have metabolic and physiological capability of producing compounds with interesting pharmacological properties that have not been observed in terrestrial microorganisms. To date, actinomycetes are the most economically and biotechnologically valuable marine prokaryotes examined. However, their diversity remains relatively unexplored. Novel culturing methods and sampling techniques used to gain access to unknown environments will allow us to discover the fascinating world of novel bioactive secondary metabolites from microbial sources.