Aim of the research is to isolate and identify bacteria from sea fan corals and analyzing its insecticidal activity against storage pest, Sitophilus oryzae. The bacterial strain WP3, was isolated from the coral Junceella juncea from Tuticorin coast, Gulf of Mannar region, south east coast of India. Insecticidal activity of pure compounds was assayed by bench top assay method. Different solvent extracts (hexane, acetone and methanol) of the culture broth (WP3) was done and its activity was noted. Methanol extract showed minimum LC50 when compared to acetone and hexane extracts. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) trace confirmed the presence of active compounds. Mass spectrophotometry (MALDI-TOF) analysis has shown that the mass of the molecules ranged from 1225 Da to 1927 Da. 16S rRNA sequencing and phylogenetic identification was done and the stain was identified to fell under the genera Bacillus. The result shows that the marine bacteria isolated from Junceella juncea corals are a potential source of novel bioactive agents and other natural products that may be utilized as pesticides.
Junceella juncea, Bacillus kochii, Sitophilus oryzae, Mass spectrophotometry
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