Isolation and characterization of Streptomyces tauricus from Thajiwas glacier—a new source of actinomycin-D

The aim of the present study was to isolate potent anticancer compound from actinomycetes strain SRP18 isolated from soil of high altitude region of Thajiwas glacier, Sonamarg Kashmir—India. The potential isolate SRP18 was identified as Streptomyces tauricus on the basis of 16S rDNA sequence technique. The large scale cultivation of potent strain, Streptomyces tauricus SRP18 and subsequent isolation and purification by a series of chromatographic techniques resulted in isolation of potent anticancer compound. Structure elucidation of potent compound by using various spectroscopic techniques including NMR was confirmed to be actinomycin–D. As such, this is the first report of a strain of S. tauricus capable of producing this bioactive compound. The isolated compound was evaluated for its cytotoxicity potential against four human cancer cell lines like HeLa, PC-3, THP-1, and Caco-2 and showed a potent activity with IC50 range of 4.91–7.25 µM.