Isolation, Characterization and Antibacterial Activity of Terrestrial Actinobacteria in the Soils of Thanjavur District, Tamil Nadu, India

The terrestrial soil sample was collected from Orathanadu, Thanjavur (Dt.), Tamilnadu, India. Physical and chemical characteristics of soil samples such as pH, electrical conductivity (EC), calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+), bicarbonate (HCO3^-), chloride (Cl^-), total organic carbon, available nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P₂O₅) and potassium (K₂O) were analyzed. A total of 10 actinobacteria were isolated from the terrestrial soil sample and they were characterized based on the morphological and biochemical properties. Among 10 isolates, each one was belonged to Actinobispora sp., Actinosynnema sp., Actinoplanes sp., Agromyces sp., Actinomadura sp., Jonesia sp., Catellatospora sp., Micromonospora sp., Microtetrospora sp. and Nocardia sp. Antibacterial activity of actinobacteria were tested against five different human pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter aerogenes. Further, the purification of antibacterial compound was performed by using thin layer chromatography and the functional groups of bioactive compounds were determined by FT-IR and UV spectral studies.