Actinomycetes in Karstic caves of northern Spain (Altamira and Tito Bustillo)

A variety of isolation procedures were carried out to study the involvement of bacteria in the colonisation and biodeterioration of Spanish caves with paleolithic rock art (Altamira and Tito Bustillo). The applied techniques mainly aimed to isolate heterotrophic bacteria such as streptomycetes, noca rdioform and coryneform actinomycetes, and other Gram-positive and Gram-neg ative bacteria. The results demonstrated that actinomycetes were the most a bundant Gram-positive bacteria in the caves. Actinomycetes revealed a great taxonomic diversity with the predominant isolates belonging to the genus S treptomyces. Members of the genera Nocardia, Rhodococcus, Nocardioides, Amy colatopsis, Saccharothrix, Brevibacterium, Microbacterium, and coccoid acti nomycetes (family Micrococcaceae) were also found. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scienc e B.V. All rights reserved.