For the past 25 years, I have devoted most of my research efforts to the application of molecular genetics to yield improvement and production of novel secondary metabolites in actinomycetes. My group at Lilly Research Laboratories worked with a variety of Streptomyces species and with strains of Amycolatopsis and Saccharopolyspora. We developed molecular genetic tools to manipulate actinomycete genes, and applied them to important secondary metabolites, including tylosin, daptomycin, vancomycin, chloroeremomycin, and spinosyns. In the early years, I helped establish recombinant DNA technology to manufacture mammalian proteins, and more recently, helped implement microbial genomics as a research tool for antibiotic discovery. In this paper, I review some highlights, primarily from the actinomycete work. Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology (2000) 24, 79–88.
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Received 25 October 1999/ Accepted in revised form 12 November 1999
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Baltz, R. Sweet home actinomycetes: The 1999 MDS Panlabs Lecture. J Ind Microbiol Biotech 24, 79–88 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jim.2900788
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jim.2900788