[Spontaneous variability of Actinomyces werraensis]

The study of spontaneous variation of Act. werraensis not subjected to the treatment with mutagens and stabilizing selection revealed 6 variants within the homologous series of hereditary variation of apigmental actinomyces. The example of revealing the proactinomycete-like variants in Act. werraensis confirmed the prognosticating principle of the homologous series law in the hereditary variation of actinomycetes. Correlation between the cultural and morphological features of the spontaneous variants and the antibiotic-production level was shown. It was found that the variants of Act. werraensis had a high variation coefficient characteristic of the wild type actinomycetes. A possibility of increasing the biosynthetic activity of Act. werraensis by selection of spontaneous variants with artificial mutagenesis was shown.