Bioactive Actinobacteria Associated with Two South African Medicinal Plants, Aloe Ferox and Sutherlandia Frutescens
Bioactive actinobacteria associated with two South African medicinal plants, Aloe ferox and Sutherlandia frutescens Maria Catharina King A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor Philosophiae in the Department of Biotechnology, University of the Western Cape. Supervisor: Dr Bronwyn Kirby-McCullough August 2021 http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ Keywords Actinobacteria Antibacterial Bioactive compounds Bioactive gene clusters Fynbos Genetic potential Genome mining Medicinal plants Unique environments Whole genome sequencing ii http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ Abstract Bioactive actinobacteria associated with two South African medicinal plants, Aloe ferox and Sutherlandia frutescens MC King PhD Thesis, Department of Biotechnology, University of the Western Cape Actinobacteria, a Gram-positive phylum of bacteria found in both terrestrial and aquatic environments, are well-known producers of antibiotics and other bioactive compounds. The isolation of actinobacteria from unique environments has resulted in the discovery of new antibiotic compounds that can be used by the pharmaceutical industry. In this study, the fynbos biome was identified as one of these unique habitats due to its rich plant diversity that hosts over 8500 different plant species, including many medicinal plants. In this study two medicinal plants from the fynbos biome were identified as unique environments for the discovery of bioactive actinobacteria, Aloe ferox (Cape aloe) and Sutherlandia frutescens (cancer bush). Actinobacteria from the genera Streptomyces, Micromonaspora, Amycolatopsis and Alloactinosynnema were isolated from these two medicinal plants and tested for antibiotic activity. Actinobacterial isolates from soil (248; 188), roots (0; 7), seeds (0; 10) and leaves (0; 6), from A. ferox and S. frutescens, respectively, were tested for activity against a range of Gram-negative and Gram-positive human pathogenic bacteria.
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