This project aimed to isolate and characterize volcanic soil Actinobacteria from Deception Island, Antarctic. A total of twenty−four Actinobacteria strains were isolated using four different isolation media (Starch casein agar, R2 agar, Actinomycete isolation agar, Streptomyces agar) and characterized basing on 16S rRNA gene sequences. Tests for secondary metabolites were performed using well diffusion method to detect antimicrobial activities against eight different pathogens, namely Staphyloccocus aureus ATCC 33591, Bacillus megaterium , Enterobacter cloacae , Klebsiella oxytoca , S. enterica serotype Enteritidis, S. enterica serotype Paratyphi ATCC 9150, S. enterica serotype Typhimurium ATCC 14028 and Vibrio cholerae . Antimicrobial properties were detected against Salmonella paratyphi A and Salmonella typhimurium at the concentration of 0.3092±0.08 g/ml. The bioactive strains were identified as Gordonia terrae , Leifsonia soli and Terrabacter lapilli. Results from this study showed that the soil of Deception Island is likely a good source of isolation for Actinobacteria. The volcanic soil Actinobacteria are potentially rich source for discovery of antimicrobial compounds.

The aim of this study was to compare various methods of anti fungal activity determination in model experiments. For the investigations Bacillus coagulans (No. 6) isolate with the high anti fungal activity, isolated from lupine composts was used. Anti fungal activity of the examined isolate was estimated against five pathogenic species of fungi: Rhizoctonia so/ani, Bipolaris sorokiniana, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Trichothecium roseum and Fusarium oxysporum. Determination of fungal growth was carried out by three methods: ergosterol assessment, counting colony-forming units (CFU) and agar plate diffusion assay. Statistically significant Spearman's rank coefficients were recorded between ergosterol assessment and two other methods. On the basis of this data the assessment of ergosterol is the best way ofdetermination of antifungal activity and may be used as a reference procedure.