Soil Streptomyces are the versatile producers of secondary metabolites with different biological activities, including antibacterial, antifungal and anticancer properties.Some of the clinically important anticancer drugs produced by Streptomyces are doxorubicin, actinomycin D, mithramycin, neocarzinostatin and mitomycins.Regardless of the presence of several anticancer drugs and therapeutic methods for the treatment of cancer, cancer is still a major public health problem.Thus, there is always a constant need of alternative anticancer drugs with minimal side-effects.The present study aimed to explore the anticancer potentials of Streptomyces strains isolated from soil habitats of hilly region of Nepal. Streptomyces strains were isolated and primarily characterized by morphological, physiological and biochemical analyses. Further characterization of these isolates wasdone by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis and their taxonomic positions were confirmed by phylogenetic analyses using BLAST searches and on EzTaxon Server. Mycelial and spore morphology of Streptomyces strains were observed by scanning electron microscopy. The crude extracts of selected isolates were tested for anticancer activity against lung carcinoma cell line and human embryonic kidney cell lineby MTT assay. Interestingly, some of these extracts showed greatpotency to inhibit more than 90 % of the cancer cell growth.
