Abstract
The morphological characteristics of newly isolated actinomycete strains resembled those of Streptomyces strains, but the cell wall of these strains were of a new type containing similar amounts of both LL-DAP and meso-DAP, which is the most important characteristic of these strains. Based on these findings, a new genus Kitasatosporia was proposed for these strains.
When strains of this genus were cultivated in liquid media, filamentous mycelia(FM) and submerged spores(SS) were produced. FM contained mostly meso-DAP and SS contained only LL-DAP. When grown on agar media, vegetative mycelia contained meso-DAP and aerial spores (AS) contained LL-DAP. Thus a good correlation between the cell morphology and the types of DAP isomers was demonstrated.
The SS and AS were resistant to sonication, but were sensitive to lysozyme digestion and moist heat. The cell walls of SS and AS contained the same amino acids (LL-DAP, alanine, glutamic acid and glycine) in almost identical molar ratios.
