Morphology, Physiology and Taxonomy of an Iranian Strain of Streptomyces plicatus

The search for new antibiotics has stimulated a variety of different approaches for identification of novel producers throughout the world. Actinomycetes, as potent candidates, continue to be isolated by traditional and new methods from a wide variety of soils and substrates. The lists of new antibiotics and new Actinomycetes species suggest that the careful exploration of new soils and habitats might continue to be useful. However, in this regard, distribution, isolation, identification and detection of active Streptomycetes microflora of Iran is not well investigated. In preliminary screening of soil inhabitant Actinomycetes, we isolated (Streptomyces plicatus strain 101) from soils of an apple orchard in Kerman province, south- east of Iran. It revealed high antagonistic activity against wide range of plant pathogenic bacteria and fungi. Identification to the genus level was based mainly on morphological characters. Electron microscopy and direct observations revealed the morphological criteria as: color of aerial mycelia was gray, reverse color was negative and spore chains were spiral with smooth spore surface. Physiological characterizations indicated that it can utilize Inositol, Mannitol, Fructose, Rhamnose and Xylose but not Arabinose, Raffinose and Sucrose and without melanoid or soluble pigments.

Keywords:

Soil Actinomycetes , Melanoid pigments , Streptomyces plicatus