Selective isolation, antimicrobial screening and phylogenetic diversity of marine actinomycetes derived from the Coast of Bejaia City (Algeria), a polluted and microbiologically unexplored environment.

Abstract

The current study aimed to evaluate the occurrence of actinomycetes in the Coast of Bejaia City using selective isolation, as well as their bioactivity and phylogenitic diversity. Different selective media and methods were used, leading to the isolation of 103 actinomycete strains. The number of strains was influenced by isolation procedures and their interactions based on a three-way ANOVA and a post hoc Tukey test, which revealed that using M2 medium, dilution of samples followed by moderate heat treatment, and sampling at 10-20m yielded the highest numbers of actinomycetes. The isolates were screened for their antimicrobial activity against human pathogenic microorganisms using agar and well diffusion methods. Of all the isolates, ten displayed activity against at least one Gram-positive bacterium, of which P21 showed the highest activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Methicillin-resistant S. aureus and Bacillus subtilis, with a diameter of 32, 28 and 25mm respectively. Subsequently, active isolates were assigned to Streptomyces spp. and Nocardiopsis spp. based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing, including a putative new Streptomyces species (S3). The phenotypic characteristics of the P21strain were determined, and interesting enzymatic capacities were shown. The recovery of actinomycetes along the Coast of Bejaia City was influenced by the isolation procedure. Ten strains displayed interesting antibacterial activity against Gram-positive bacteria, of which the P21 strain was selected as the most active strain. This work provides a new insightinto the occurrence of actinobacteria in the Coast of Bejaia. It suggests also that polluted environments such as Bejaia Bay could provide access to interesting actinomycetes as sources of antibiotic leads.