Culture 78 was proposed as a neotype of Streptomyces ruber. It was isolated from the soils of the Baikal region and was closest, in its taxonomic properties, to the original description of the species [13] whose representative had been lost. Cultures from different microbial collections designated as S. ruber were shown to be unlike the original description. The neotype had the following taxononic properties: the cell wall of type I; spiral sporophores with extended spirals having 2-3 coils; oval spores with a smooth envelope; greyish pink aerial and dark-red substrate mycelia; a red pigment not passing into the medium; slow gelatin liquefaction and milk peptonization; weak starch hydrolysis; assimilation of glucose, xylose, rammose, fructose, and inositol; weak growth on arabinose, raffinose and mannitol, but not on sucrose; no formation of melanoid pigments; synthesis of riboflavin and prodigiosin pigments; inhibition of Gram-positive bacterial and acid-resistant mycobacterial growth; no inhibition of yeast and fungal growth. The culture was sensitive to streptomycin, neomycin, gentamycin, monomycin, tetracycline,erythromycin, oleandomycin, lincomycin, ristomycin, levomycetin, polymyxin and fusidin, but resistant in penicillin. The population was composed of six variants [3]: main, faded, asporogenic red, asporogenic yellow, asporogenic white and nocardia-like. The latter two were not capable of riboflavin and prodigiosin formation. The asporogenic yellow variant was a monosynthetic organism: it formed riboflavin, but could not synthesize prodigiosin. The neotype of S. ruber 78 is deposited withthe national Collection of Microorganisms (the reference number is VKM A-611).