Abstract
Organisms of genus Micromonospora are endowed with some peculiarities among actinomycetes. It was discerned for the metabolites, the spores, the cell wall and the growing conditions. Various types of antibiotics and enzyme inhibitors were found in our screening program, suggesting the organisms to be promising sources of useful drugs. More than 50% of the single spores on vegetative mycelia survived after 20 min of moist heating at 60°C, and also more than 10% did after 30 min of treatment at 30°C with solutions containing 60% polar solvents. The cell wall was constituted of a peptide subunit glycyl-D-glutaminyl-meso-diaminopimelyl-D-alanine, a direct cross-linkage between D-alanine and meso-diaminopimelic acid, N-glycolylmuramic acids, and ribitol teichoic acids containing arabinose and xylose. These characteristics, together with some physiological properties, were discussed in comparison with those of other genera in Actinomycetales.
