Transformation in Streptomyces with Respect to Antibiotic Production

Summary. Transformability of a large number of Streptomyces strains was examined with respect to antibiotic production. Of 8 antibiotically inactive strains studied, 3 could be transformed to antibiotic production by treatment with the deoxyribonucleic acid of antibiotically active strains. When both the donor and the recipient strains were antibiotically active, 3 of 32 pairs of strains examined yielded positive transformations. The recipient strains acquired the antimicrobial spectra of the donor antibiotics; in some cases the chemical properties, including R f values in several solvent systems, of the antibiotic substances elaborated by some of the donor and transformant strains were found to be similar. Although an antibiotically inactive mutant of S. viridifaciens could be transformed to antibiotic production by treatment with the DNA of S. aureofaciens NCIB 8234, all attempts at transformation in the Streptomyces strains producing the tetracycline group of antibiotics failed. A candicidin producing strain of S. griseus NCIB 8891 acquired antibacterial property when transformed with the DNA of S. griseus MA 8. A strain of Streptomyces sp. A(22) 3 transformed 4 other strains of Streptomyces.