Rapid detection of 'rare' actinomycetes in environmental samples.
Natural products continue to be a useful source of new leads for the pharmaceutical industry. Actinomycetes are prolific producers of natural products and one strategy to increase the possibility of discovering novel chemical entities is to screen actinomycetes considered 'rare' in the environment and previously under-represented in natural product screening collections. We describe a method using bacteriophage as a marker to detect these actinomycetes in environmental samples. This method allows samples to be pre-screened for the presence of target actinomycetes before lengthy isolation programmes are undertaken.
The School of Pharmacy, University of London, 29/39 Brunswick Square, Bloomsbury, WC1N 1AX, UK.
Esther W N
EW
Gathogo
Alastair C W
AC
Waugh
Natasa
N
Perić-Concha
Maria B
MB
Redpath
Paul F
PF
Long
D039903:Actinobacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000821:virology*; D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D012988:Soil Microbiology