title: The diversity and anti-microbial activity of endophytic actinomycetes isolated from medicinal plants in Panxi plateau, China.
abstract: Traditional Chinese medicinal plants are sources of biologically active compounds, providing raw material for pharmaceutical, cosmetic and fragrance industries. The endophytes of medicinal plants participate in biochemical pathways and produce analogous or novel bioactive compounds. Panxi plateau in South-west Sichuan in China with its unique geographical and climatological characteristics is a habitat of a great variety of medicinal plants. In this study, 560 endophytic actinomycetes were isolated from 26 medicinal plant species in Panxi plateau. 60 isolates were selected for 16S rDNA-RFLP analysis and 14 representative strains were chosen for 16S rDNA sequencing. According to the phylogenetic analysis, seven isolates were Streptomyces sp., while the remainder belonged to genera Micromonospora, Oerskovia, Nonomuraea, Promicromonospora and Rhodococcus. Antimicrobial activity analysis combined with the results of amplifying genes coding for polyketide synthetase (PKS-I, PKS-II) and nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) showed that endophytic actinomycetes isolated from medicinal plants in Panxi plateau had broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity and potential natural product diversity, which further proved that endophytic actinomycetes are valuable reservoirs of novel bioactive compounds.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, College of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Sichuan Agricultural University, 625000, Yaan, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Petri
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Penttinen
authors.forename: Tongwei
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lindström
authors.forename: Lili
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiaoping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Gary A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Strobel
mesh_terms: D039903:Actinobacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism*; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000378:metabolism*; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D002681:China; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000382:microbiology*; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S