Soil Actinomycetes of Vietnam Tropical Forests

Abstract

Actinomycetes are an important group of bioactive hydrolytic bacteria in any ecosystem. However, the actinomycete biodiversity in tropical ecosystems, particularly in Vietnam, is still underexplored. The aim of this article is to analyze the abundance, taxonomic structure and ecophysiological features of actinomycete complexes of soils and litter in Vietnam’s protected areas. A total of 41 samples of soils, plant litter and suspended soils were collected from six of Vietnam’s national parks and nature reserves. The direct inoculation technique showed that the total abundance of actinomycetes varied from 2.0 × 104 to 1.0 × 108 CFU/g. According to the luminescent microscopy with acridine orange dye, the length of the actinomycete mycelium was as long as 1000 m/g in the litter of Xuan Son National Park. A total of 80 strains were isolated and tested for antagonistic activity against Bacillus subtilis, Aspergillus niger and Candida albicans. Inoculation on Getchinson’s medium showed high cellulolytic activity. The most active strains were isolated from alluvial brown soil, plant litter and suspended soil of the Pu Hoat Nature Reserve. In these samples, actinomycetes adapted to high temperatures and low pH were found to be predominant. High-throughput sequencing of the V3–V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene and bioinformatic analysis confirmed the high taxonomic diversity and high hydrolytic activity of actinomycete complexes of the Pu Hoat Nature Reserve samples.