No growth on cellulose. Actively proteolytic. Nitrites produced from nitrates. Odor: Earthy or musty. Aerobic. Antagonistic properties: Usually none. Some strains produce actinomycetin. Some produce thiolutin or endomycin. Comment: Because of the wide distribu- tion of this species and the ease of its super- ficial identification, numerous strains with varying physiological properties have been reported. Source: Isolated from air and soil (Rossi- Doria); from garden soil (Krainsky). Habitat: Dust, soil, grains and straw. Widely distributed. 2. Streptomyces longisporus (Krassil- nikov, 1941) Waksman, 1953. {Actinomyces longisporus Krassilnikov, Guide to the Ac- tinomycetes, Izd. Akad. Nauk, U.S.S.R., Moskau, 1941, 47; Waksman, in Waksman and Lechevalier, Actinomycetes and Their Antibiotics, Baltimore, 1953, 39.) lon.gi'spo.rus. L. adj. longus long; Gr. fem.n. spora a seed; M.L. noun spora a spore; M.L. adj. longisporus long-spored. Vegetative growth: Colorless colonies. Some strains produce a brown substance in protein media. Aerial mycelium: White. Long sporo- phores with many curls, weak spirals, occa- sionally forming small brooms. Spores cylin- drical, with sharply cut ends, 0.6 to 0.8 by 1.0 to 1.7 microns; later spores may become ellipsoidal, 0.5 to 0.8 by 0.9 to 1.0 micron. Gelatin: Rapid liquefaction. Milk: Rapidly coagulated and peptonized. Starch is actively hydrolyzed. Fair to good growth on cellulose. Nitrate reduction variable. Antagonistic properties: None. Distinctive characters: Distinguished from Streptomyces albus in that its spores are never spherical. Source: Isolated from soil. Habitat: Soil. 3. Streptomyces globisporus (Krassil- nikov, 1941) Waksman, 1953. {Actinomyces globisporus Krassilnikov, Guide to the Ac- tinomycetes, Izd. Akad. Nauk, U.S.S.R., Moskau, 1941, 48; Waksman, in Waksman and Lechevalier, Actinomycetes and Their Antibiotics, Baltimore, 1953, 39.) glo.bi'spo.rus. L. mas.n. globus a round body; Gr. fem.n. spora seed; M.L. noun spora a spore; M.L. adj. globisporus round- spored. Vegetative growth: Flat, colorless col- onies. No diffusible pigment. Aerial mycelium: Well developed, pow- dery, white. Sporophores straight, fre- quently forming brooms. Spores ellipsoidal and spherical, 0.8 micron in diameter. Gelatin: Rapid liquefaction. Agar: Grayish, smooth or lichenoid colo- nies. Aerial mycelium poorly developed. Synthetic agar: Abundant growth, giving flat, colorless colonies, not coloring medium. Aerial mycelium well developed, powdery, white with trace of yellow. Milk: Rapidly peptonized; not coagu- lated. Potato : No aerial mycelium or trace ; faint brown color of plug. Sucrose not inverted. Starch hydrolyzed slowly. Good growth on cellulose. Antagonistic properties: None or weak. Distinctive characters: Waksman {loc. cit.) regards this species as distinct from Streptomyces griseus (No. 85) on the basis of a white aerial mycelium, lack of ability to coagulate milk and slow hydrolysis of starch. Further studies have indicated that these variations may not be sufficient to justify the separation into two species. (Also see comment following description of S. griseus.) Comment: Krassilnikov distinguishes this species from S. griseus primarily upon the fact that the sporophores of the latter species, as originally described by Krainsky (1914), exhibited spiral formation. The streptomycin-producing culture, isolated by Waksman et al. (1943) and identified as Streptomyces griseus, exhibited no spiral formation and is therefore regarded by Krassilnikov (Izd. Akad. Nauk, U.S.S.R., Moskau, 1949, 100) as a subspecies of Ac- tinomyces globisporus named Actinomyces globisporus streptomycini . Krassilnikov rec- ognizes several substrains of the species Streptomyces globisporus on the basis of
