Relationship between macrotetrolide production and specific activity of some hydrolases in a high and a low producing strain of Streptomyces griseus

The activities of five hydrolytic enzymes in the culture filtrate and in cell-free extracts from strains of Streptomyces griseus, differing in macrotetrolide production, have been determined over a fermentation period of 200 h. The specific activities of phosphatase, phosphodiesterase, and adenosine triphosphatase in the medium, and phosphatase and phosphodiesterase in the cell-free extract were lower in the low than in the high producing strain. No significant difference was found between the strains, for adenosine triphosphatase and protease activity in the cell-free extract or protease activity in the medium. The specific activity of esterase was higher in the low than in the high producing strain.