DC-86-M, a novel antitumor antibiotic. I. Taxonomy of producing organism and fermentation.

A novel antibiotic, DC-86-M was isolated from the culture broth of a new isolate, DO-86, from the soil sample collected in Machida-shi, Japan. The producing organism was found to belong to Streptomycetes, for it formed aerial mycelia and chains of spores and its cell wall analyses revealed the presence of LL-diaminopimelic acid. The morphological, cultural and physiological characteristics of the strain DO-86 resemble closely those of Streptomyces luteogriseus and we concluded that the strain DO-86 could be designated as Streptomyces luteogriseus DO-86. The antibiotic was produced in the fermentation medium consisting of lactose 20 g, glucose 10 g, Pharmamedia 15 g, yeast extract 5 g, meat extract 10 g and CaCO3 2 g per liter of tap water.