Studies ofmicrobial flora in the subtropics and collection of their cultures

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This study was aimed to investigate flora of microbes, such as fungi, yeasts, bacteria and actinomycetes, inhabiting subtropical regions in Japan and to isolate the strains for depositing them into the collection, and also to understand their properties adapting to the subtropical environments by studying their life cycle and ecology. The research sites were the South-West Islands (Amami Is., Okinawa Is., Ishigaki Is., and Iriomote Is.) of Japan, where we collected samples regularly from 1999 to 2002. We targeted 1) aquatic fungi inhabiting fallen leaves, seaweeds, etc. at mangroves and seashore, 2) soil fungi inhabiting forest, fields and mangrove rhizosphere, 3) endophytic fungi living within living leaves, 3) yeasts inhabiting soil, flowers, fruits, etc., 4) marine bacteria (especially Cytophaga-Flavobacterium group), and 5) rare actinomycetes inhabiting soil. We obtained a number of isolates including many undescribed species, some of which we have already described as new taxa. Ecological study on some of the isolated fungi revealed that subtropical strains have different properties from those of the tropical strains of the same species, which showed specificity adapting to the subtropical environmental conditions. After identification of the obtained isolates, they were deposited the culture collection of IFO, an open-public culture collection, for public use for basic and applied science. Further taxonomic studies, which are now going on, will result in description of new taxa and also in contribution to a progress in microbial taxonomy.