Microbial production of antibiotics from mangrove ecosystem

Abstract

Antagonistic compounds a r e widespread in sediments which is a treasure house for many useful micro-organisms and among them streptomycetes are considered the most important group of organisms capable of producing the widely used antibiotic substances. Antibiotics are of considerable interest because they offer a potentially powerful way of selectively inhibiting bacteria, thus permitting one to descriminate between the contributions from various groups of organisms in complex ecological processes. Some antibiotics are active against only Gram-positive or Gram-negative bacteria, others have a broad-spectrum of activity. As different antibiotics have different modes of action, one bacterial process may be inhibited by a given antibiotic but another process may be unaffected (at least over the short term).