Production of the Same Antibiotics by Members of Different Genera of Microorganisms

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the production of antibiotics by organisms that are very different one from another. It presents a list of antibiotics whose producing organisms have a good chance, of having been properly identified as very different organisms. 3’-Amino-Y-deoxyadenosine is an antitumor agent with slight activity against a few yeasts, which has been found to be produced by a species of Helminthosporium, Cordyceps militaris, and Aspergillus nidulans. Prodigiosin is a tripyrrolic red antibiotic pigment characteristic of Serratia marcescens, which is active against bacteria, mainly gram-positive, and has a few antifungal and antiprotozoal activity. Iodinin was first reported as an antibiotic pigment from a bacterium isolated from milk. Questiomycin A was isolated from the culture filtrates of a species of Streptomyces. Fumigacin, first isolated in 1942, is an antibacterial substance which is produced by Aspergillus fumigatus, Cephalosporium mycophylum, and Streptomyces reticuli. The chapter concludes that the more closely related organisms are, the more likely they are to produce the same secondary metabolites.