Journal of Microbial & Biochemical Technology

Morphological traits of some actinobacteria and their importance in the genomic era

International Conference and Summit on Industrial & Pharmaceutical Microbiology

October 17-18, 2016 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Luis A Maldonado and Erika T. Quintana

Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Mexico
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico
Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), Mexico

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Microb Biochem Technol

Abstract:

Microbes still are a vast and fully unexplored source for novel biologically active compounds and the actinobacteria subgroup (Gram positive bacteria with a 40 to 60% GC content) accounts for nearly 80% of the current medically employed antibiotics. Among the actinobacteria, members of the genus Salinispora are a promising source for novel compounds due to their unique ability to solely grow on the presence of sea water, a fact which supports their adeptness to the marine ecosystem. Salinispora are still difficult to isolate and characterize as strains usually undergo several chameleonic morphological states. In this study, a collection of 66 isolates recovered from a national resource and assigned to the genus Salinispora were screened for their metabolic profiles coupled to both genotypic and morphological properties. Evaluation of the enzymatic profile of the strains for amylases, cellulases, lipases and proteases indicated that all the strains produced amylases and lipases whereas only 7.5% produced proteases; no cellulase activity was found. Also, the 66 strains showed antimicrobial activity against clinical isolates of Staphylococcus epidermidis. It is therefore, proposed that genome sequencing, single gene oriented phylogenies and morphological properties should be used in conjunction to construct a robust system to fully comprehend and exploit the biotechnological potential of Salinispora since several of the isolates from this study contained sequences not-related to previously reported Rifamycin clusters from Salinispora recovered from other regions of the world.

Biography :

Luis A Maldonado has completed his PhD at the University of Newcastle, UK in 2002, followed by a Postdoctoral position in Biodiversity and Biogeography of Marine Actinomycetes. He has published more than 30 papers and/or book chapters in the actinobacteria field that have been cited over 1250 times. He is PLOS ONE Academic Editor, constantly reviews manuscripts for other journals and grant funding agencies. He is also a co-author on the latest edition of the Bergey’s Manual for the genera Gordonia, Nocardia and Salinispora. His research interests are in improving selective isolation strategies for industrially important actinobacteria notably Micromonospora, Salinispora and rare Streptomyces while exploring their biotechnological applications.

Email: lmaldonado@correo.uam.mx