Streptomyces: connecting red-nano and grey biotechnology fields

Abstract

Anthropogenic activities are often related to the occurrence of simultaneous contaminations with heavy metals and toxic organic compounds. In addition, the increasing demand for food, clothing, and technology has increased the worldwide contamination level. Although it is not fully demonstrated, the high level of contamination in association with the indiscriminate use of antibiotics, led to the appearance of multi-resistant pathogenic microorganisms. Grey and red biotechnologies try to counteract the negative effects of pollution and antimicrobial resistance respectively. Streptomyces is well known in the field of biotechnology. In this review, we discussed the potential of these bacteria to deal with organic and inorganic pollutants and produce nanostructures with antimicrobial activity. To our knowledge, this is the first work in which a biotechnological bacterial genus such as Streptomyces is revised in two different fields of global concern, contamination, and multi-drugs resistant microorganisms.