Comparative study of chemoattractants for the isolation of motile-spored actinoplanetes

Four chemoattractants and three media were used to isolate actinomycetes from environmental samples. Each chemoattractant was evaluated for its ability to attract motile-spored actinoplanetes. The attractants compared were gamma-collidine, D-xylose, vanillin and phosphate-buffered potassium chloride (bKCI). The method of Hayakawa et al for preparing the chemoattractants was combined with a modified chemotactic method. Of the chemoattractants tested, gamma-collidine yielded a slightly greater number of motile-spored actinoplanetes than bKCI or D-xylose, and a significantly greater number than vanillin. bKCI attracted about the same number of organisms as D-xylose. By using several attractants and media with a variety of soils, distinctly different isolates were obtained with each combination.