1965 Volume 18 Issue 3 Pages 120-124
It has been shown in the preceeding paper1) that chemotherapeutic agents, comprising of antibiotics and synthetic compounds, may be classified into 3 groups or 6 types according to their ability to produce morphological changes in Escherichia coli strain B. It was found that antitumor agents belonged mostly to the group capable of producing elongation of E. coli cells, i.e. Types A,B and C. The antimicrobial agents belonged to the group causing agglomeration of E. coli cells, i.e. Types D and E. It was also suggested that the phenomenon of cell-elongation can be applied to the screening of anticancer substances. This paper deals with the relationship between the morphological changes in E. coli and antitumor or antimicrobial activity when tested with the culture filtrates of soil streptomyces by several screening methods.
