YM-30059, a Novel Quinolone Antibiotic Produced by Arthrobacter sp.

In the course of a screening program, a novel quinolone antibiotic, YM-30059 (Fig. 1) was isolated from the culture broth of Arthrobacter sp.YL-02729S.YM-30059 exhibited relatively high antibacterial activities against Gram-positive bacteria including multiple-drug resistantStaphylococcus aureus and S. epidermidis.The present paper deals with the taxonomy of the producing organism, fermentation, isolation, structure elucidation and biological activity of the new antibiotic. MicroorganismStrain YL-02729S was freshly isolated from a soil collected from West Kalimantan, Indonesia.Colonies of strain YL-02729Swere semi-transparent, white cream, circular and convex on various complex media.By light and electron microscopic observations, strain YL-02729S was Gram-variable rods.A rod-coccus growth change occurred during cultivation in the various complex media.Primary branching occurred after cultivation for 24 to 48 hours, but no true mycelia were produced in any stage of the cell cycle.The temperature range for growth was 15 to 37°C.The cell wall peptide glycan contains lysine as a diamino acid.It was obligately aerobic.Catalase, gelatinase and DNase reactions were positive.The major menaquinones were MK-9 (H2).The mol% of G+C of the DNA was 67.4 (HPLC method 1>2)).Based on the characteristics described above, the strain was identified as a memberof the genus Arthrobacter, and named Arthrobacter sp.YL-02729S.