Isolation and characterization of Streptomyces spp. from soils
G.Y. Tan1, C.Y. Ho2, E.L.Tan' and K.L.Thong1*
1Division of Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science,
University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2School of Science and Technology, University Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
Received 16 February 2001 / Accepted 4 September 2001
Abstract.
The isolation of forty eight strains of actinomycetes from eight soil samples was done with the conventional dilution plate method on Humic acid vitamin agar (HVA), Starch Casein agar and Sorenson's agar. HVA was found to be the best isolation medium as more strains of actinomycete could be isolated. Based on the aerial mycelium colour scheme, three colour groups were recognised. Representative isolates from each colour group were subjected to macrorestriction analysis with the pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The different coloured strains exhibited low levels of similarity (Dice coefficient, F<0.50). Acetone extracts of the isolates were screened on mutant yeasts for Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase (MAPK) Kinase and MAPK Phosphatase inhibitor to find an indirect inhibitor of ras. However, no inhibitor was found but seven isolates exhibited toxic effect towards the yeasts. PFGE analysis of these isolates showed that two of isolates were identical. From the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, the two isolates were shown to be of the same strain.
Keywords: morphology, PFGE, soil isolation, Streptomyces
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