Isolation of azomycin from Pseudomonas fluorescens.

In recent years, it has been recognized that bacteria can produce antibiotics of wide structural diversity. Many examples for the production of the antibiotics knownas products of Actinomycetales by eubacteria have been reported1*. Here, we will report the isolation of azomycin from the culture broth of a strain identified as Pseudomonas fluorescens. Azomycinwas first isolated from a strain resembling Nocardia mesenterica2'3) and also from Streptomyces eurocidicus*' 5)'. The producing organism numbered PB-6,282 was isolated from river water in Matsusaka-city, Mie Prefecture, and identified as P. fluorescens6) by the following characteristics. The organism is aerobic, Gram-negative, non-sporulating rods (0.5 x 1.0 ~2.0 jum) with rounded ends. Motility is observed with polar multi-trichous flagellation. Colonies on heart infusion agar are circular, slightly convex, smooth and shiny with yellowish orange color. Glucose is metabolized oxidatively. The following tests gave positive results: Catalase, oxidase, gelatin liquefaction, citrate utilization, arginine dihydro-