Screening of actinomycetes from indigenous soil for production of extracellular metabolites

Actinomycetes are abundantly present in soil and they produce a variety of antimicrobial compounds that can be used as chemotherapeutic agent in order to limit the infection. In present study, actinomycetes were isolated from different ground soils. Primarily these isolates were screened for extracellular metabolites production by conventional methods. Cross streak method and double agar overlay methods were used in this screening. Initially we have isolated 33 actinomycetes strains from different soil samples and screened them for antimicrobial potential. About 51.51 % of isolated strains showed the antagonistic properties against one or two tested gram positive bacteria. The best strain IAS 1, IAS 7, IAS 10, IAS 11, showed maximum zone of inhibition against M.luteus. The chemical nature of ISA 10 was assessed by simply heating the supernatant and we found that the extra cellular metabolite activity was absent in heated sample suggesting the protein nature of it