In the course of screening for new antibacterial agents, a new isolate collected from a soil sample of an arid area in south Algeria, produced a red pigment which was shown an antagonistic action against a Gram-positive bacterium
Bacillus subtilis. The isolate was identified as
Saccharothrix sp. and named SA 103. The red pigment, eluted by HPLC on reverse phase C
18 column, contained two compounds of an anthracycline antibiotics group. The structure of the major product (
2) was characterized as mutactimycin C, and PR (
1) was a new member of this group, designated as mutactimycin PR. These compounds showed an antibiotic activity against certain Gram-positive bacteria
in vitro. This is the first report of mutactimycins production by the genus
Saccharothrix.
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