The systematic screening studies for antibiotics inhibiting Piricularia oryzae, a cause of rice plant disease, have been made in our laboratory with cooperation of Fukunaga and others, National Institute of Agricultural Science, Tokyo.
A strain isolated from a soil sample collected at Gazaki, Wakayama Prefecture, produced antifungal substances which were named blasticidins A, B and C. This strain was identified to be a new species, Streptomyces griseochromogenes. These results were briefly reported by Fukunaga and others1.
During further studies on blasticidins, an other antibacterial substance was isolated from the culture broth of the same strain. This antibiotic was different from blasticidins A, B and C and exhibited antibacterial effects on miscellaneous bacteria including Pseudomonas, and also a strong inhibition on Piricularia oryzae. It was named blasticidin S by the present authors. The production, isolation, and properties of blasticidin S are presented in this paper.
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