SCREENING AND DETECTION OF ALPHA AMYLASE INHIBITORS PRODUCED BY MARINE MICROORGANISMS BY MODIFIED TLC AND RPTLC METHODS

Screening and detection of marine actinomycetes producing alpha amylase inhibitor was carried out by modified TLC plate method and new RPTLC plate method respectively. Out of 200 isolates only one α-amylase inhibitor producing strain was isolated from the marine sediment collected from Tamilnadu coast of Bay of Bengal. The strain showed some similarities with strain Streptomyces lateritius like antibiotic production and similar sporophore formation. However, more differences were observed with respect to carbon sources utilization, hence it was designated as Streptomyces lateritius var TP4/6. This paper involves development of modified TLC and RPTLC method for screening of proteinaceous amylase inhibitors. These methods are more reliable than existing methods like starch plate, starch agar plate and TLC plate method for primary screening of alpha amylase inhibitors. Our strain TP4/6 characteristics were compared with the existed strain Streptomyces lateritius and concluded that it is a variety of the existed one. This was the first report on screening and detection of proteinaceous amylase inhibitor using these methods.