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Soil actinomycetes of 703 strains were isolated from 25 sampling points in Cheju Island using 4 different media. Arginine glycerol salts agar containing soil extract was found to be the best medium for the isolation of soil actinomycetes. Soil samples from pasture land showed higher population and diversity of the actinomycetes than those from citrus field, forest, island, hill or valley. When the antibacterial activity of the 526 isolates was tested against three bacterial strains, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas solanacearum, the frequency of the isolates with antibacterial activity varied much depending upon the media used for isolation and cultivation. BL106Ba, one of the 10 isolates that showed antibacterial activity against all the above 3 test strains, was chosen based upon the pH and heat stability of its antibacterial metabolites, and was identified as Streptomyces sp. based upon its cultural, morphological and physiological characteristics. The partially purified white crystalline substance obtained from the culture supernatant of BL106Ba through cation exchange chromatograpy(AG MP-50) and three times consecutive gel filtration(Sephadex G-10) showed high antimicrobial activity against gram positive and negative bacteria, but low activity against yeasts. The partially purified substance was found to contain at least four different compounds with antibacterial activity by both thin layer chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography.
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