Actinobacteria from Cow Feces: Isolation, Identification and Screening for Industrially Important Secondary Metabolites

Abstract

Actinobacterial strains isolated from Cow feces were studied for their antifungal attributes against phytopathogens and industrially important enzymes. A total of 30 Actinobacterial strains were obtained from 10 samples of cow feces. All the strains were belonging to the genera Streptomyces on the basis of morphological and chemotaxonomic analysis. During preliminary screening, out of 30 strains, 15 strains (50%) showed antifungal activity against five fungal phytopathogens including Aspergillus niger, Fusarium solani, Fusarium oxysporum, Macrophomina phaseolina and Rhizoctonia solani. While, isolate GBTCF-26 was found to be most active against R. solani with 62.2% inhibition of fungal mycelium, GBTCF-09 was prominent against F. solani and F. oxysporum with percent inhibition of 61.1% and 58.8%, respectively. Out of 30 strains, 19 (63.3%), 16 (53.3%), 11 (36.7%), 10 (33.3%), 4 (13.3%) and 8 (26.7%) strains were producing amylase, caseinase, gelatinase, lipase, chitinase and cellulose, respectively. The selected strains, GBTCF-09, GBTCF- 21 and GBTCF-26, were identified as Streptomyces sp. on the basis of their 16S rDNA sequence. The study supports the idea that the Actinobacteria from unique niches (Cow feces) possess the production potential of industrially important enzymes including bioactive molecules.