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Multiple, Novel Biologically Active Endophytic Actinomycetes Isolated from Upper Amazonian Rainforests

  • Plant Microbe Interactions
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Abstract

Microbial biodiversity provides an increasingly important source of medically and industrially useful compounds. We have isolated 14 actinomycete species from a collection of approximately 300 plant stem samples from the upper Amazonian rainforest in Peru. All of the cultured isolates produce substances with inhibitory activity directed at a range of potential fungal and bacterial pathogens. For some organisms, this activity is very broad in spectrum while other organisms show specific activity against a limited number of organisms. Two of these organisms preferentially inhibit bacterial test organisms over eukaryotic organisms. rDNA sequence analysis indicates that these organisms are not equivalent to any other cultured deposits in GenBank. Our results provide evidence of the untapped biodiversity in the form of biologically active microbes present within the tissues of higher plants.

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Acknowledgments

This program was supported in part by a grant to Yale University, in support of S.A.S., from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute through the _HHMI Professors Program. Additional funding was also provided by the National Science Foundation to S.A.S. (OISE 0636212). S.J.L. was supported by a fellowship from the Beckman Foundation. Assistance in plant collection was provided by Mr. Javier Huayaban Troncoso and Mr. Oscar Caceres Maceda of Nature Inka, Peru. The fungal test organisms were provided by G.A. Strobel, Department of Plant Sciences, Montana State University; the Bacillus subtilis was provided by Dr. A.L. Sonenshein, Tufts University School of Medicine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, 260 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT, USA

    Carol A. Bascom-Slack, Cong Ma, Emily Moore, Beatrice Babbs, Kathleen Fenn, Joshua S. Greene, Bradley D. Hann, Jocelyn Keehner, Elizabeth G. Kelley-Swift, Vivek Kembaiyan, Sun Jin Lee, Puyao Li, David Y. Light, Emily H. Lin, Michelle A. Schorn, Daniel Vekhter, Lori-Ann Boulanger & Scott A. Strobel

  2. Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, 84602, USA

    W. M. Hess

  3. Facultad de Biologia, Andes Amazon Guianas Herbario Vargas (CUZ), Peru Escuela Post Grado, Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Cusco, Peru

    Percy Núñez Vargas

  4. Department of Plant Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, 59717, USA

    Gary A. Strobel

Authors
  1. Carol A. Bascom-Slack
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  2. Cong Ma
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  3. Emily Moore
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  7. Bradley D. Hann
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  9. Elizabeth G. Kelley-Swift
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  12. Puyao Li
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  13. David Y. Light
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  14. Emily H. Lin
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  15. Michelle A. Schorn
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  17. Lori-Ann Boulanger
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  18. W. M. Hess
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  19. Percy Núñez Vargas
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  20. Gary A. Strobel
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  21. Scott A. Strobel
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Correspondence to Scott A. Strobel.

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Bascom-Slack, C.A., Ma, C., Moore, E. et al. Multiple, Novel Biologically Active Endophytic Actinomycetes Isolated from Upper Amazonian Rainforests. Microb Ecol 58, 374–383 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-009-9494-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-009-9494-z

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