title: Bioactive compounds from marine actinomycetes.
abstract: Actinomycetes are one of the most efficient groups of secondary metabolite producers and are very important from an industrial point of view. Among its various genera, Streptomyces, Saccharopolyspora, Amycolatopsis, Micromonospora and Actinoplanes are the major producers of commercially important biomolecules. Several species have been isolated and screened from the soil in the past decades. Consequently the chance of isolating a novel actinomycete strain from a terrestrial habitat, which would produce new biologically active metabolites, has reduced. The most relevant reason for discovering novel secondary metabolites is to circumvent the problem of resistant pathogens, which are no longer susceptible to the currently used drugs. Existence of actinomycetes has been reported in the hitherto untapped marine ecosystem. Marine actinomycetes are efficient producers of new secondary metabolites that show a range of biological activities including antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer, insecticidal and enzyme inhibition. Bioactive compounds from marine actinomycetes possess distinct chemical structures that may form the basis for synthesis of new drugs that could be used to combat resistant pathogens.
authors.affiliation: Acharya Narendra Dev College, University of Delhi, Govindpuri, Kalkaji, New Delhi, 110 019 India.
authors.forename: Renu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Solanki
authors.forename: Monisha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Khanna
authors.forename: Rup
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lal
keywords: Bioactive compounds; Marine actinomycetes