Innovare International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Academic Sciences ISSN- 0975-1491 Vol 6, Issue 6, 2014 Original Article TAXONOMIC STUDIES AND PHYLOGENETIC CHARACTERIZATION OF POTENTIAL AND PIGMENTED ANTIBIOTIC PRODUCING ACTINOMYCETES ISOLATED FROM RHIZOSPHERE SOILS 1TELUGU VARALAKSHMI *, 2KALVA MADHANA SEKHAR AND 1PETLA BHASKARA BRAMHANANDHA CHARYULU 1Department of Microbiology, Sri Krishna devaraya University, Anantapur-515055, Andhra Pradesh, India. 2Department of Plant Sciences, University of Hyderabad 500046, Andhra Pradesh, India Email:
[email protected] Received: 11 May 2014 Revised and Accepted: 12 Jun 2014 ABSTRACT Objective: To investigate the production of antibiotics from pigment producing actinomycetes isolated from the rhizosphere of three different plant soils (Foxtail millet, Groundnut and Mulberry) from different localities of Anantapur region, Andhra Pradesh, India. Methods: A total of 30 actinomycetes were isolated and tested against, pathogenic bacteria and fungi. Out of 30 isolates, 10 promising isolates [A2, A5, A8, A12, A14, A17, A21, A24, A27 and A29] showed activity against pathogenic bacteria and fungi by primary screening. Out of ten active isolates, potential isolate A2 was subjected to secondary screening, identification and fermentation methods. Identification is by morphological, biochemical and molecular methods. A phylogenetic tree was constructed by maximum parsimony method to identify up to the species level. The secondary structure of 16S rRNA and the restriction sites were also predicted using Genebee and NeBCutter online software’s respectively. Fermentation is by submerged state to produce crude extracts. The fermented biomass was extracted by organic solvent extraction method and tested against the bacterial strains by agar well diffusion method. Results: Molecular taxonomy and phylogeny revealed that the strain belongs to the genus Streptomyces and was designated as Streptomyces rameus KCTC 9767.