Abstract
Microbial pathogens are developing resistance against existing antibiotics, stressing the need for discovery of new anti-microbial compounds. Actinomycetes produce ~80% of the available anti-microbials. The likelihood of bio prospecting un-discovered species from the terrestrial habitats have almost diminished so that the search for novel products has switched to rare genera of actinomycetes from normal habitats to discovery of species found in un-usual habitats like deserts. In Rajasthan most of the land area is covered with the great Indian desert Thar where most of times high temperature prevails. A very few reports are available in literature pertaining to the selective isolation and screening of yet unknown, anti-microbial compounds of therapeutic use from rare actinomycetes from desert eco-system. The present review discusses the need of future research to be done on actinomycetes diversity in desert ecosystem and highlights the recent research and development.
