TERPENTECIN AND UCT4B, NEW FAMILY OF TOPOISOMERASE-II TARGETING ANTITUMOR ANTIBIOTICS PRODUCED BY STREPTOMYCES - PRODUCING ORGANISM, FERMENTATION AND LARGE-SCALE PURIFICATION

Terpentecin and UCT4B are new family of antitumor antibiotics with topoisomerase II mediated DNA cleavage activity. Based on the taxonomic studies. the producing strain S-464 was identified as Streptomyces sp. This strain is different from Kitasatosporia griseola which had been identified as the terpentecin-producing strain in 1988. Fermentation studies showed that natural nitrogen sources supported higher titer of terpentecin, and the synthetic medium with inorganic nitrogen sources supported selective production of UCT4B. An improved isolation method was developed for the large scale purification of terpentecin.