Biotechnological applications of Turbinaria ornata and its endophytes

Endophytes are group of microbes that colonize in plants and other organisms which can be isolated readily. Seaweeds and its endophytes are reservoirs of several bioactive metabolites likes biosurfactants, antimicrobial compounds and several compounds with biological interests. The present study on investigation of biotechnological potential of endophytes from Turbinaria ornata. The presence of endophytes was initially confirmed by SEM analysis and further 7 bacterial strains were isolated. These strains were further screened for their ability in production of biosurfactants and bioactive compounds. The endophytes were tested biofilm formation. The endophytes were tested for heavy metal tolerance in which all the isolates showed resistance to heavy metals and VITJMP7 the most effective isolate which showed most desirable in antibacterial activity and biosurfactant production, exhibited high resistance to heavy metals up to 4000ppm. The isolate was further examined for the uptake of heavy metals by bacterial biofilm by column study. In which the Ca-Ag beads were used as biocarrier matrix for biofilm formation. The Ca-Ag with the developed biofilm showed significantly increased absorption of up to 20% compared to the beads without bioflim. The effective isolate (VITJMP7) was further molecularly characterised by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and was identified to be the closest neighbour of Cobetia amphilecti (99.59% similarity). In addition, Turbinaria ornata extracts were also evaluated for their antibacterial properties against three pathogens, the methanolic extract showed better activity on all pathogens.