Biodiversity and Bioprospecting of Aquatic Actinomycetes of Godavari River

Abstract

River Godavari is the second largest river in India next to the Holy Ganga. A very little newlinestudy on microbiology especially with reference to Actinomycetes of Godavari River has been newlinerecorded. The present research was hence designed to reveal the presence of actinomycetes in the newlinesediments of this river. The practical difficulties encountered while running screening newlineexperiments, especially collection of sediments led us to introduce modified strategies for newlinesampling and isolation of actinomycetes, based on studies through review papers. The aims and newlineobjectives were broken down into executable units further viz. sediment sampling strategy, pretreatments newlineof sediments, screening of media and modifications of media to minimize other newlinebacterial and fungal contamination and supplementing with sediment extracts to optimize newlineisolation of actinomycetes, maintenance of isolates and studies on their bioprospects, newlineidentification using molecular biological techniques and diversity studies. The sediment newlinesampling strategy, screening of media, isolation and maintenance were the major part of the newlinestudies. This study reveals that aquatic bodies, rivers in particular Godavari, as in our case can be newlinea potential resource from which bioactive actinomycetes could be isolated. Four different genera newlineof actinomycetes which include three rare genera were isolated in this study with the help of newlinemedia modification techniques. newlineFurther, the bioprospects of these actinomycetes isolates are particularly very encouraging. newlineEspecially the bioactivity of the rare actinomycetes like enzyme production potential and copper newlinetolerance makes a ground for belief that these can be potentially applied in bioremediation. This newlineis to the best of our knowledge, also the first study reporting the use of Minimal Agar medium newlinefor antibacterial compound and utilization of fat waste as a substrate for biosurfactants newlineproduction from a rare actinomycete. The study this explores the neglected aquatic habitat and The present study has thus, combined the need for exploration of