Isolation and molecular characterization of microorganisms producing novel antibiotics from soil sample

Antibiotics are one of the most important commercially exploited secondary metabolites produced by the bacteria and employed in a wide range. Most of the antibiotic producers used today are the soil microbes. Fungal strains and Streptomyces members are extensively used in industrial antibiotic production. Bacteria are easy to isolate, culture, maintain and to improve their strains. Although thousands of antibiotics have been isolated from soil microbes, these represent only a small part of the repertoire of bioactive compounds so far produced. Majority of the Actinomycetes in soil that are potential drug sources remain uncultivable, and therefore inaccessible for novel antibiotic discovery. Hence there is need to rediscover new drugs active against these drug resistance pathogens. The main objective of the present study was isolation, purification, and characterization of soil isolates having antimicrobial activity against Bacillus strains. Soil samples were serially diluted and plated on isolation agar media. Potential colonies were screened, purified, and stored in glycerol stock. Isolates were morphologically and biochemically characterized. Genomic DNA was extracted from the identified isolate, and analyzed using 16s rRNA sequencing. The sequence analysis revealed of the strain to be Streptomyces, Bordetella and Achromobacter. The culture isolate was grown in the production medium and then isolated with the antibiotic compound. The compound isolated was tested for the antibacterial activity using the tube method and Well plate method. The compound showed high potential of antibacterial activity and the activity is dose dependent.