Diversity and Antibacterial Screening of Actinomycetes from Javadi Hill Forest Soil, Tamilnadu, India

Actinomycetes from diverse environments are known to produce novel antibacterial and antifungal substances. Herein we report isolation of antibiotic producing actinomycetes from forest soil of ancient human inhabited Javadi hill, Tamilnadu, India, an environment that is under explored. Thirty six isolates were obtained from five soil samples using nalidixic acid and nystatin supplemented starch casein agar and actinomycete isolation agar medium. These colonies NLO were characterized based on their mycelium structure, colour and arrangement of spores on the mycelium. Further they were evaluated for their antimicrobial activity against a range of pathogenic resistant bacteria including Escherichia coli (MTCC 739), Bacillus cereus (MTCC 1272), Staphylococcus aureus (MTCC 1144), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MTCC 1688), Proteus mirabilis (MTCC 1425)and Klebsiella pneumonia (MTCC 109) adopting agar plug method and confirmed by cross streak method.