Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

ISOLATION OF ACTINOMYEETES FROM THE MANGROVE ENVIRONMENT OF THE SOUTHEAST COAST OF ;NCLIA

Siva Kumar, K., Maloy Kumar Sahu and K. Kathiresan

Abstract

Sediment samples were collected from different stations of the Pichavaram mangrove ecosystem (Lat.! 1027' N; Long.79° 47' E), situated along the southeast coast of India for isolation of actinomycetes.The actinomycetes colonies were isolated using three different media viz., Starch Casein Agar (SCA), Glucose Asparagine Agar(GAA) and Kuster's Agar (KUA). Consistently a higher number of populations occurred on KU Agar (KUA) medium and the highest population density recorded was 4 x I 04 CFU/g. Hence, for enumerating the actinomycetes populations from the mangrove environment, KU Agar medium is recommended.