Utilization of the protoplast fusion technique to explore directional altering lincomycin producing microorganism

Interspecific protoplast fusion between Streptomyces lincolnensis var. lincolnensis (LM gamma, CTC gamma, producing lincomycin) protoplast and Streptomyces aureofaciens (LM gamma, CTC gamma, producing chlorotetracycline) protpolast which had been treated with UV radiation 40 min for inactivation was performed with PEG 6000, the fusants were obtained by directly selecting from the regeneration plates containing CTC 50 micrograms/ml, the fusion frequency was about 9.05 x 10(-5). From many fusants, only 4 stable recombinants were obtained. These species produced antibiotics which are different from lincomycin and chlorotetracycline. Preliminary identification of the antibiotic synthesized by one of the recombinants suggests that its basic structure might be similar to that of lincomycin. The fermentation product of recombinant No. 2 showed new chromatographic spot which is similar to that of clindamycin. Though the products remain to be identified further, this strategy seems to be worthy of exploring for screening new antibiotics.