Abstract: Twelve representative soil samples were collected from different altitudes on the northern slope of Taibai Mountain to study the distribution and characteristics of soil antagonistic actinomyces by using agar block method. There existed a great deal of soil antagonistic actinomyces in the study area. Among the 141 actinomycete strains isolated,116 strains (82.3%) showed antagonism toward 12 target bacteria or fungi.The antagonistic strains at altitudes 800-1845, 3488,3655, and 3670 m occupied 73.7%-86.8%,81.3%, 78.9% and 82.3% of the total, respectively. 42.1% of the strains at altitudes 1200-2300 m and >3400 m showed strong and broad spectrum antagonistic activity, suggesting that there was a great potential for the isolation of actinomycete strains with strong anti-biotic capability at these altitudes.  24.1% of the antagonistic actinomycetes showed antagonism against Staphyloccocus aureu, and 2.4%, 6.9% and 11.2% of them showed activity toward Verticillium dahliae in cotton,Phytophthora sp. in strawberry and Neonectria radiciccla in ginseng, respectively. This study showed that  the soil actinomycete antagonistic potentiality (SAAP) could be used as a quantitative indicator to evaluate the potential of antagonistic actinomycete resources in soil.

Key words: actinomycetes, microbial ecology, microbial resources