Detection of antitumor and antimicrobial activities in marine organism associated actinomycetes isolated from the Taiwan Strait, China.

The purpose of this work was to screen the actinomycetes having antitumor or antimicrobial activity, which were isolated from the surface, epidermis and intestines of sea plants and animals collected from the Taiwan Strait, China. Antitumor activity was studied by the MTT assay and DNA target activity was studied by the biochemical induction assay while antimicrobial activity was determined by observing bacterial and fungal growth inhibition. 20. 6% of marine actinomycete cultures displayed cytotoxic activity on P388 cells at dilutions at and below 1:320 and 18.6% on KB cells. 2. 96% of marine actinomycete cultures displayed inducing activity. Among all marine actinomycetes isolated, the genus Micromonospora has the highest positive rate of inducing activity. However, most antimicrobial activity was found in the genus Streptomyces. These results indicate that marine organism associated actinomycetes could be a promising source for antitumor and antimicrobial bioactive agents.