Identification of novel Streptomyces strains

The increase in resistant pathogens, emergence of new diseases and toxicity of drugs that are currently used makes the urgent search to find new bioactive compounds in the medical industry to be of major importance. UAE is an under explored habitat that may have the potential to harbour novel Streptomyces strains producing diverse natural products. Six novel Streptomyces strains were isolated from Terrestrial habitats in UAE. The strains (CSK1, CSK3, CSW2, CSU1, CSU2 and CSG1) were found to produce antimicrobial metabolites against agianst Gram negative and positive organisms. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA sequence confirmed the identification and novelty of the six isolates to the genus of Streptomyces. The cytotoxicity of the extracts was investigated on HeLa cancer cell line by MTT assay and DAPI staining where some of the isolates inhibited the growth of HeLa cells in a concentration-dependent manner and caused apoptosis observed by DNA fragmentation and chromatin condensation