Bioactive compounds from Streptomyces nasri and its mutants with special reference to proteopolysaccharides.

The use of microbial exopolysaccharides (EPS) in the food, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries has steadily increased during the past decade. A bioactive EPS producing microorganism, Streptomyces nasri was isolated from Kuwait tropical soil and the proteopolysaccharide was tested for its antimicrobial activity. The isolate was subjected to ultraviolet (UV) radiation and acridine orange (AO) treatment to select for superior proteopolysaccharide producers. Among eight (five derived from UV exposure and three from AO exposure) morphological variants of Streptomyces nasri, two mutants showed increased EPS production, from 1.8 g/l to 2.3 g/l. The SDS-PAGE profiles of exopolysaccharides were determined. The molecular weight of the proteopolysaccharide ranged from 18 to 200 kDa. Mutants derived from UV exposure produced polysaccharides with higher molecular weight than those derived from acridine orange exposure. Acridine orange derived mutants produced lower molecular weight polysaccharides. Culture supernatants have been partially characterized and they show antimicrobial activity against a wide range of microorganisms. The structure of the exopolysaccharide was determined using NMR spectroscopy. The polysaccharide was also tested for cytotoxic activity against human brain tumor cell line using SRB assay.