BOTANICAL VIEW OF ANTIBIOTICS — JONES 375 



microscope, whicli has an inbuilt camera to record the selected observa- 

 tions for publication in scientific journals. 



The spores contain nuclear material which is not identical in quan- 

 tity or configuration from spore to spore, even within a given chain. 

 This may explain why cultures established from single-spore isolations 

 of sister spores are dissimilar. In other words Streptomycetes may 

 have inbuilt "reasons" for being variable which have enhanced their 

 natural survival. Charles Darwin delighted in extolling the case for 

 evolution in the large, variable, wide-ranging genera. StrejHomyces 

 would have qualified eminently. 



How to identify and classify species within the genus Streptomyces 

 such as Streptomyces griseus^ S. rhnosus, S. venezuelae^ and S. alhus 

 has not yet been satisfactorily resolved. The first monographer, Ru- 

 dolph Lieske, of Leipzig, in 1921 gave up the task as insuperable 

 because of the inordinate variability of the Actinomycetes. The dif- 

 ficulty has been many times compounded since then by the enormous 

 size of collections of Streptomyces in industrial laboratories, gathered 

 from the four corners of the earth. Never have biologists been pre- 

 sented with such a welter of representatives of a genus in any group 

 of living things. This is a worrisome situation both for industry 

 and for science. Industrial establishments, seeking to recoup expenses 

 incurred in developing an antibiotic, wish to obtain patents that will 

 protect them from competitors using the same streptomycete. This 

 requires that a botanist write a description for the species (perhaps in 

 Latin!) that will be so firm and unequivocal that no other pharma- 

 ceutical manufacturer will produce the same drug. Unfortunately, 

 the species in question may be exasperatingly variable, alienating the 

 affections of the botanist. If he describes it too narrowly, other com- 

 panies may land on variants which do not fit the description and 

 proceed to produce the same antibiotic with impunity. On the other 

 hand, if the species description is too loose, the patent lawyers may 

 disallow it and rival interests contend that an unfair attempt is being 

 made to corner the fungi ! 



On the scientific side, there is, as I have intimated, no generally 

 agreed upon system of classification of Streptomyces. Official com- 

 missions in this country and in Europe, including Eussia, are still 

 struggling over "valid criteria" for classification. Many members 

 of the commissions are experimentalists who have not served an ap- 

 prenticeship in taxonomy, which is really a great science, requiring 

 years of experience before one can hope to have a "feel" for appre- 

 hending characteristics and judging their significance in the delinea- 

 tion of species. Darwin w^as not writing in a moment of levity in the 

 Origin when he stated that the concept of species is subjective. It 

 has validity only insofar as the individual researcher "knows" his or- 

 ganism, much as a shepherd knows his sheep. 



