Anthracycline metabolites from baumycin-producing Streptomyces sp. D788. I. Isolation of antibiotic-blocked mutants and their characterization.

Biosynthetically blocked mutants were obtained from a baumycin-producing Streptomyces sp. D788 newly isolated from soil. The first mutant isolated was a baumycin-negative but daunorubicin-accumulating mutant with a loss of 4'-substitution activity, from which all other blocked mutants were successively derived. These included a known 11-deoxydaunorubicin-producing mutant and several new types of mutants which produced mainly 10-carboxy-13-deoxocarminomycin, 10-methoxycarbonyl-13-deoxocarminomycin, their 11-deoxy derivatives or a precursor aglycone, respectively. In this paper, all the anthracycline components produced by the parent strain and its two known blocked mutants, a daunorubicin producer and a 11-deoxydaunorubicin producer, are also determined by HPLC and five new components are isolated. Cytotoxicities in vitro of all the components against L1210 cell culture are also described.