Evaluation of random mutations in Streptomyces peucetius and their impact on the production of Daunorubicin

The present study deals with evaluation of random mutations and their impact on the production of anti-tumor drug Daunorubicin. Daunorubicin is a secondary metabolite, produced by the strain Streptomyces peucetius. In our study, S. peucetius was irradiated with UV rays to create physical mutagenesis and was also subjected to chemical mutagenesis by Ethyl-methane sulfonate. Our study aims to develop a mutant and make a comparative study with the wild strain of Streptomyces peucetius in relation to the enhancement of the yield of Daunorubicin. The generated mutant was then set for fermentation in R2YE fermentation media at optimum conditions to authenticate enhanced yield. Further the anti-tumor activity of Daunorubicin produced from wild and mutant Streptomyces peucetius was measured using MTT cell proliferation assay followed by determination of IC50 values. The results obtained were promising that the anti-tumor activity and cell growth inhibition were found to be high in the Daunorubicin produced by the mutant strain than that of wild strain.