FAMILY III. STREPTOMYCETACEAE 



791 



Potato: Lichenoid, cream-colored to 

 brownish growth. No aerial mycelium. No 

 soluble pigment. 



Starch is actively hydrolyzed. 



Nitrites not produced from nitrates. 



Source: Isolated from the sputum of a 

 patient with chronic lung disease. 



Habitat: Unknown. 



85. Streptoinyces griseus (Krainsky, 

 1914) Waksman and Henrici, 1948. {Actino- 

 myces griseus Krainsky, Cent. f. Bakt., II 

 Abt., 41, 1914, 662; Waksman and Henrici, 

 in Manual, 6th ed., 1948, 948; also see Waks- 

 man, Reilly and Harris, Jour. Bact., 56, 

 1948, 259.) 



gri'se.us. M.L. adj. griseus gray. 



Vegetative growth: Colonies smooth or 

 folded, colorless, later turning olive-buff. 



Aerial mycelium: Abundant, powderj^, 

 water-green. Sporophores produced in 

 tufts. Spores spherical to ellipsoidal, 0.8 by 

 0.8 to 1.7 microns. 



Agar: Abundant, cream-colored, almost 

 transparent growth. Aerial mycelium pow- 

 dery, white to light gray. No soluble pig- 

 ment. 



Gelatin stab: Greenish yellow or cream- 

 colored surface growth with brownish tinge. 

 Rapid liquefaction. 



Synthetic agar: Thin, colorless, spread- 

 ing growth, becoming olive-buff. Aerial 

 mycelium thick, powdery, water-green. 



Starch agar: Thin, spreading, transparent 

 growth. 



Glucose agar: Growth elevated in center, 

 radiate, cream-colored to orange, erose 

 margin. 



Glucose broth: Abundant, 3-ellowish pel- 

 licle with greenish tinge, much folded. 



Litmus milk: Cream-colored ring; coagu- 

 lated with rapid peptonization, becoming 

 alkaline. 



Potato: Yellowish, wrinkled growth cov- 

 ered with white, powderj^ aerial mycelium. 



The pigment formed is not soluble. 



Starch is hydrolyzed. 



Nitrites produced from nitrates. 



Aerobic. 



Optimum temperature, 37° C. 



Antagonistic properties: Strongly antago- 

 nistic. DifYerent strains of this organism 

 produce different antibiotics. One of these, 



streptomycin, is active against a large num- 

 ber of bacteria and actinomycetes but not 

 against fungi and viruses. Some strains pro- 

 duce grisein. Others form candicidin. 



Distinctive characters: This species is dis- 

 tinguished by Waksman from Streptomyces 

 globisporus (No. 3) primarily on the basis 

 of the yellow-green to gray color of the 

 aerial mycelium on most media, and on the 

 ability to coagulate milk and to hydroh'ze 

 starch rapidly. 



Comments: The original de.scription of 

 this organism by Krainsky (op. cit., 1914, 

 662) mentions spiral formation in the sporo- 

 phores; the cultures subsequently isolated 

 and described by Waksman and Curtis 

 {op. cit., 1916, 119) and Waksman, Reilly and 

 Harris {op. cit., 1948, 259) were not shown to 

 exhibit spiral forms. In other characteri.stics 

 these cultures resembled the original 

 description. The description of Streptomyces 

 griseus presented here is based largely on the 

 description of the culture isolated by Waks- 

 man and Curtis. Waksman does not feel that 

 the differences among these various isolates 

 are sufficient to justify separation into more 

 than one species. 



Krassilnikov (Guide to the Bacteria and 

 Actinomj'cetes, Izd. Akad. Nauk, U.S.S.R., 

 Moskau, 1949, 93 and 98) regards the organ- 

 ism isolated and described by Krainsky as 

 different from the organisms isolated later 

 by Waksman et al., the distinction being 

 made on the appearance of the sporophores. 

 Krassilnikov regards the organisms exhibit- 

 ing spiral formation as Actinomyces griseus 

 Krainsky; those without spiral formation 

 as Actinomyces globisporus Krassilnikov. 

 The streptomycin-producing strain is re- 

 garded as a subspecies of the latter species 

 rather than of the former. 



Source: Isolated from garden soil; later 

 from soils, river muds and the throat of a 

 chicken. 



Habitat: Presumably soil. 



86. Streptomyces longissimus (Kras- 

 silnikov, 1941) Waksman, 1953. {Actinomyces 

 longissimus Krassilnikov, Guide to the 

 Actinomycetes, Izd. Akad. Nauk, U.S.S.R., 

 Moskau, 1941, 38; Waksman, in Waksman 

 and Lechevalier, Actinomj^cetes and Their 

 Antibiotics, Baltimore, 1953, 87.) 



