STUDIES OF THE BIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND HALOPHILISM OF A STREPTOMYCES STRAIN TA4-1

An actinomycete strain, TA4-1, was isolated from soil samples from the Tansui River esruary mangrove forest. This isolate was able to grow i n media containing 3-10% salt, and showed a morphological similarity t o Actinopolyspora mortivallis 13635, a previously reported halophilic actinomycete (Yoshida et al., 1991). The biological characteristics of strain TA4-1 were studied for taxonomic classification, and were comp ared with those of A. mortivallis 13635 and Actinopolyspora halophila 13403 to distinguish characteristics related to halophilism. No signif icant morphological difference among these three strains was observed with scanning electronic microscopy, but tests for cultural, physiolog ical and biochemical characteristics, sugar utilization, and the whole cell chemotype (e.g. diaminopimelic acid, sugars, phospholipids, fatt y acids, and DNA homology) suggested that strain TA4-1 belongs to the genus Streptomyces, and also revealed great differences among the thre e strains studied. Consequently, strain TA4-1 is distinguished from A. mortivallis and A. halophila, and is more likely a NaCl tolerant Stre ptomyces strain.