Molecular profiling and anti-infective potency of endophytic actinomycetes inhabiting Madhuca insignis Radlk., from Western Ghats of India.

Background: Endophytic actinomycetes are well known for their diverse bioactive entities and considered as an important source for drug development research.

Results: We isolated and identified four potential endophytic Streptomyces species, i.e., Streptomyces misionensis MI22, Streptomyces roietensis MI24, Streptomyces glaucescens MI29, and Streptomyces sp. MI04 inhabiting Madhuca insignis by its characteristic morphological features and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. S. misionensis MI22 exhibits a broad spectrum of anti-microbial activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (25.00 ± 1.00 mm) followed by Bacillus subtilis (23.66 ± 0.57 mm), Escherichia coli (22.00 ± 0.00 mm), and Candida albicans (18.00 ± 0.00 mm). Minimum inhibitory concentrations of the ethyl acetate fraction of S. misionensis MI22 against test pathogens were ranged from 25 to 100 μg/mL. Indeed, strain MI22 also exhibited significant anti-proliferative activity against HeLa cell line with IC value 98 μg/mL and showed no cytotoxicity effect to the normal human embryonic kidney cell line in the MTT assay. The anti-microbial metabolites from strain MI22 were detected at R 0.55 as depicted by the inhibition zone on the intensive band in TLC-bioautography assay.

Conclusion: The study indicates that, anti-microbial metabolites of these endophytic Streptomyces species, especially S. misionensis MI22 as a prolific source to discover novel bioactive metabolites to combat multidrug-resistant pathogens.