Production of Flavour‐enhancing Materials by Streptomycetes: Screening for 5′‐Nucleotides

Summary. Streptomycetes were examined for their ability to accumulate flavour‐enhancing nucleotides. An efficient screening programme was devised for the isolation of streptomycetes excreting 5′‐nucleotides. Less than 0.7% of these organisms isolated from nature showed appreciable extracellular accumulation of 5′‐nucleotides, and streptomycetes derived from culture collections gave none. In shake flask experiments the yields of nucleotides were minimal and did not exceed (g/l) 0.2 of inosine 5′‐monophosphate, 0.15 of xanthosine 5′‐monophosphate, and 0.05 of guanosine 5′‐monophosphate.