Pellet formation and cellular aggregation in Streptomyces tendae.

In submerged cultures, Streptomyces tendae tended to form fluffy spherical pellets of the noncoagulative type. An increase in the average pellet size could be attained by decreasing any of the following: shear rate, pH, temperature, or inoculum size. Conditions leading to oxygen limitation tended to reduce the average pellet size and induced pulpy growth, whereas oxygen sufficiency seemed to induce pellet formation. Factors inducing pellet formation simultaneously increased cell wall hydrophobicity. It is therefore proposed that the main forces inducing cellular aggregation in S. tendae are hydrophobic interactions of cell walls, and these interactions are controlled by availability of dissolved oxygen.