JOURNAL OF CULTURE COLLECTIONS
Volume 6, 2008-2009, pp. 38-41
VIABILITY STUDY OF SOME LOCALLY ISOLATED STREPTOMYCETES
Hala M. Rifaat
Microbial Chemistry Department, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt
e-mail: halamohamed6@hotmail.com
Summary
Maintaining and preserving actinomycetes cultures are essential elements for systematic and biodiversity investigations. The influence of long-term preservation on the survival of some locally isolated streptomycetes cultures was studied. The storage duration varies from 5 to 15 years. 37.5 % of the viable streptomycetes strains had been kept on Sabouraud-dextrose agar while the rest (62.5 %) was kept on Malt extract agar. Streptomyces violaceusruber produced its characteristic pigment even after 14 years under these conditions. Four of the recovered strains were tested for their antimicrobial action. The activity was retained to 82-95 % from the initial one. The method of preservation was found to be suitable for long-term storage of strains producing antibiotics.
Key words: actinomycetes, paraffin oil, preservation, viability