Selection and taxonomic identification of carotenoid-producing marine actinomycetes.

Carotenoids are important pigments produced by plants and many microorganisms, including fungi, microalgae, cyanobacteria, and bacteria. Marine actinomycetes are a group of bacteria that produce a variety of metabolites with economic potential. Here, we describe a general method of selecting marine actinomycetes as carotenoids' producers. The screening is carried out at two levels: the first one involves a quick selection of strains by visual color inspection, and the second consists in the analysis of the extracts by HPLC. The taxonomic analysis of the producing strains gives us an overview of the groups of actinomycetes in which carotenoids can be found.