Development of Streptomyces aureofaciens in submerged culture

During the biosynthetic production of chlortetracycline on a medium with sucrose, soy meal, corn steep extract, sodium chloride, ammonium sulphate, calcium carbonate and beet molasses, the amount of nucleic acids synthesized by the culture and the maximum respiration of the culture is determined by the amount of inorganic phosphate in the original medium. Chlortetracycline production does not start until all the inorganic phosphate has been consumed. The adverse influence of increased amounts of inorganic phosphate upon production of chlortetracycline is more apparent in flasks on a shaking machine than in agitated and aerated fermentation tanks with higher oxygen transfer numbers.