Biodiversity and Natural Product Potential of Indonesian Actinomycetes

Actinomycetes are a diverse group of microorganisms that play essential roles in environmental processes and drug discovery, particularly through the production of bioactive secondary metabolites. In Indonesia, most actinomycetes have been isolated predominantly from soil; however, the country encompasses a wide range of underexplored ecosystems, including karst ecosystems, geothermal areas, mangroves, marine organisms, and plant-associated environments. This review analyzes the biodiversity of actinomycetes across different environments in this island nation by constructing a phylogenetic tree based on 152 strains with available 16S rRNA gene sequences. This analysis revealed a broad distribution of actinomycete taxa, with the majority belonging to the genus Streptomyces. A total of 44 actinomycete-derived natural products, comprising both structurally elucidated and putatively identified compounds, have been reported in previous studies. These findings indicate that natural products from Indonesian actinomycetes remain underexplored compared with global reports. Furthermore, this review identified that molecular-level identification remains limited and suggests future studies to increase DNA sequencing efforts and deposit the resulting data in public databases to enhance taxonomic precision and facilitate future research in natural product discovery and phylogenetics.