Beneficial Role of Actinomycetes in Soil Fertility and Agriculture

Abstract

Actinomycetes are filamentous with Gram-positive bacterial characteristics and have a major contribution to the different sectors of agriculture. Actinomycetes are widely distributed and isolated from soil, ponds, lake sediments, tributaries, creek/tidewaters, and aquatic environments. Actinomycetes experience complex morphologic variation with the development of the substrate mycelia in the preliminary phase life cycle and subsequently of aerial mycelia, which leads to spores resilient to numerous environmental conditions. Both current and new natural bioactive compounds are mainstreamed by microorganisms. Bacteria have been established to be a rich source among the producers of commercially valuable metabolites, with a relatively small community of taxa comprising the preponderance of the compounds that are useful both economically and biotechnologically until now. A broad variety of biological functions such as antimicrobial, disinfectants, anticancer, immunosuppressant, fungicide, herbicidal, antioxidant, and antiviral agent is presented as secondary metabolites produced by different species of Actinomycetes. “Representative genera of Actinomycetes include Streptomyces, Actinomyces, Arthrobacter, Corynebacterium, Frankia, Micrococcus, Micromonospora, and several others.”.