Overproduction and biological activity of prodigiosin-like pigments from recombinant fusant of endophytic marine Streptomyces species.

Thirty-four endophytic marine Actinomycetes isolates were recovered from the Egyptian marine sponge Latrunculia corticata, out of them 5 isolates (14.7 %) showed red single colonies on yeast-CzAPEK plates. Isolates under the isolation code NRC50 and NRC51 were observed with the strongest red biomass. After application of protoplast fusion between NRC50 and NRC51 isolates, 26 fusants were selected and produced widely different amounts of prodigiosin-like pigments (PLPs) on different fermentation media. Among them fusant NRCF69 produced 79 and 160.4 % PLPs more than parental strains NRC50 and NRC51, respectively. According to the analysis of 16S rDNA sequence (amplified, sequenced, and submitted to GenBank under Accession no. JN232405 and JN232406, respectively), together with their morphological and biochemical characteristics, parental strains NRC50 (P1) and NRC51 (P2) were identified as Streptomyces sp. and designated as Streptomyces sp. NRC50 and Streptomyces sp. NRC51. This study describes a low cost, effective production media by using peanut seed broth, sunflower oil broth or dairy processing wastewater broth alone, or supplemented with 0.5 % mannitol that supports the production of PLPs by the Streptomyces fusant NRCF69 under study (42.03, 40.11, 36.7 and 47 g L(-1), respectively). PLPs compounds exhibited significant cytotoxic activities against three human cancer cell lines: colon cancer cell line (HCT-116), liver cancer cell line (HEPG-2) and breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) and antimycotic activity against clinical dermatophyte isolates of Trichophyton, Microsporum and Epidermophyton.