Isolation and Evaluation of Marine Actinomycetes from Mangrove Forests in South of Iran against Some Human Bacterial Pathogens

Recent studies have shown that aquatic actinomycetes can be a source of new biological products such as antibiotics and industrial products. This study was designed to examine the aquatic actinomycetes isolated from mangrove forests in South of Iran and their antibacterial activities against some human pathogens. In this study 115 samples were randomly taken from different places of a mangrove forests in South of Iran. Isolation was based on serial dilution of the samples and plating them on starch casein agar medium. Agar well diffusion and disc diffusion assays were used to examine the antibacterial activity of the isolated purified aquatic actinomycetes. The aquatic actinomycetes were isolated from 83 samples (70%). Of them, 66 (80 percent) showed antibacterial activity and 17 (20%) could not inhibit the human pathogenic bacteria. The diameter of the inhibitory zones (ZOI) ranged from 4 to 11 mm and the biggest zone belonged to Bacillus cereus (p≤0.05). The findings showed that the various and useful aquatic actinomycetes for production of new antibiotic compounds are isolated easily from the mangrove forests in South of Iran. Considering the vast spreading of mangrove forests in South of Iran and the economic and simplicity of isolation of actinomycetes for industrial usage, these source can be an important and new place for research and industry.