The present study was carried out to assess the culturable actinomycetes diversity of near-shore sediments of Algoa Bay collected at depths ranging from 5.91 to 7.51 m and approximately 500 m distance from shore. Counts of the actinomycetes ranged in the orders 101 to 102 cfu/g using CSPY-ME agar and 102 to 103 cfu/g using M1 agar. A total of 326 actinomycetes isolates belonging to sixteen (16) genera were isolated from sediment samples and includes Actinoplane spp. (4.9%); Actinopolyspora spp. (3.68%); Amycolata spp. (0.92%); Actinosynema spp. (1.53%); Ampularia spp. (3.37%); Amycolaptosis spp. (2.45%); Catellospora spp. (6.14%); Intrasporangium spp. (3.37%); Kibdellosporium spp. (2.45%); Kitasatospora spp. (2.15%); Micromonospora spp. (7.98%); Norcadia spp. (2.45%); Salinispora spp. (2.15%); Saccharopolyspora spp. (0.92%); Streptoverticillium spp. (19.33%); and Streptomyces spp. (36.20%). Depths of collection of sediment samples does not appear to affect the distribution of the actinomycetes genera, but choice of media appears to be a contributing factor to consider in cultivating marine actinomycetes as the M1 agar appears to support actinomycetes growth than CSPY-ME agar. We conclude that Algoa Bay sediment promises to be an important reservoir of marine actinomycetes of potentially biotechnological relevance.
Culturable marine actinomycetes, sediment, Algoa Bay
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