Comparison of the activity of immobilised and freely suspended Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2).

Streptomyces coelicolor was immobilised "naturally" in porous support materials and its growth, glucose uptake and actinorhodin production were compared with freely suspended culture using defined and complex media. When the defined medium was used, the most pronounced difference between the two cultures was the accumulation of actinorhodin extracellularly in freely suspended and intracellularly in immobilised cultures. In the complex medium, however, actinorhodin was excreted by both cultures. In addition, the complex medium yielded 50 times as much actinorhodin compared to the defined medium. Further increases in product concentration were obtained by repeated batches of immobilised culture, which showed stability for at least 3 months.