Bioactive endophytic streptomycetes from the Malay Peninsula

Three novel endophytic streptomycetes have been isolated and characterized from plants with ethnobotanical uses on the Malay Peninsula including: Thottea grandiflora (family - Aristolochiaceae), Polyalthia spp. (family -Annonaceae), and Mapania sp. (family - Cyperaceae). Each isolate, as studied by scanning electron microscopy, has small hyphae, and produces typical barrel-shaped spores arising by hyphal fragmentation. Interestingly, although none has any detectable antibacterial killing properties, each has demonstrable killing activity against one or more pathogenic fungi including organisms such as Phytophthora erythroseptica, Pythium ultimum, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Mycosphaerella fijiensis and Rhizoctonia solani. Molecular biological studies on the rRNA gene sequence of each isolate revealed that it is distinct from all other genetic accessions of streptomyectes in GenBank, and each bears some genetic similarity to other streptomycetes. The bioactivity of each microbe was extractable in various organic solvents.