Abstract
A strain affiliated with the Roseobacter clade and producing a new antibiotic named tropodithietic acid (L. Liang, Ph.D. thesis, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany, 2003) was isolated from the German Wadden Sea. The compound showed strong inhibiting properties with respect to marine bacteria of various taxa and marine algae. Antibiotic production was found to occur during the complete growth phase. Strain mutants without antagonistic properties appeared several times spontaneously.