Streptomyces clavuligerus

Streptomyces clavuligerus is a species of Gram positive bacterium that produces clavulanic acid.

S. clavuligerus ATCC 27064 (NRRL 3585, DSM 738) was first described by Higgens and Kastner who isolated it from a South American soil sample. Its name refers to the shape of its spore-bearing hyphal branches: clavula in Latin means little club and the suffix -igerus means bearing. S. clavuligerus spores are gray to grayish green.

S. clavuligerus produces over 20 secondary metabolites, including many beta-lactam antibiotics such as clavulanic acid, cephamycin C, deacetoxycephalosporin C, penicillin N (an intermediate in cephamycin C pathway) and at least four other clavams. Non-β-lactam antibiotics include holomycin and an antibiotic complex, MM 19290, related to tunicamycin; a beta-lactamase-inhibitory protein (BLIP) has also been described.

Another important characteristic of S. clavuligerus is that it is not able to use glucose as a carbon source, because it lacks a glucose transport system.

It also possesses all the enzymes of the urea cycle, which is unusual for a prokaryote, although it is not clear if the urea cycle is functional.