Actinomycetes
• The actinomycetes are very diverse and are generally gram-
positive and aerobic/anaerobic and have mycelium in a
filamentous and branching growth pattern.
• Some actinobacteria can form rod- or coccoid-shaped forms,
while others can form spores on aerial hyphae.
• Actinomycetales bacteria can be infected by bacteriophages,
which are called actinophages.
• Actinomycetales can range from harmless bacteria to
pathogens with resistance to antibiotics.
• The Actinobacteria are a phylum of Gram-positive bacteria.
• They can be terrestrial or aquatic.
• They are of great economic importance to humans because
agriculture and forests depend on their contributions to soil systems.
• In soil, they behave much like fungi, - decompose- absorb nutrients.
• In this role the colonies often grow extensive mycelia, like a fungus
would, and the name of an important order of the phylum,
Actinomycetales (the actinomycetes), reflects that they were long
believed to be fungi.
• Some soil actinobacteria (such as Frankia) live symbiotically with the
plants.
• Actinomycetes are gram-positive, aerobic bacteria, but are distinctive
because they have filamentous hyphae that differentiate to produce
asexual spores.
• Many closely resemble fungi in overall morphology.
• Presumably this resemblance results partly from adaptation to the
same habitats.
• They are the source of most of the antibiotics used in medicine today.
• They also produce metabolites that are used as anticancer drugs,
antihelminthics (for instance ivermectin, which is given to dogs to
prevent heart worm), and drugs that suppress the immune system in
patients who have received organ transplants.
• The life cycle of many actinomycetes includes the development of
filamentous cells, called hyphae, and spores.
• When growing on a solid substratum such as soil or agar, the
actinomycetes develop a branching network of hyphae.
• The hyphae grow both on the surface of the substratum and into it to
form a dense mat of hyphae termed a substrate mycelium.
• Septae usually divide the hyphae into long cells (20 um and longer)
containing several nucleoids.
• In many actinomycetes, substrate hyphae differentiate into upwardly
growing hyphae to form an aerial mycelium that extends above the
substratum.
Genus of actinomycetes
• Actinoplanes: (Micromonosporaceae)
• Non fragmenting,
• branching mycelium with little aerial growth sporangia formed,
• motile spores with polar flagella
• G+C 72–73
• Aerobic
• Hyphae often in palisade arrangement;
• highly colored;
• found in soil
• Arthrobacter:
• 0.8–1.2 X 1.0–8.0; young cells are irregular rods, older cells are small
cocci; usually nonmotile.
• G+C 59–70
• Aerobic
• Have rod-coccus growth cycle;
• metabolism respiratory;
• catalase positive;
• mainly in soil
• Bifidobacterium:
• 0.5–1.3 X 1.5–8; rods of varied shape, usually curved; nonmotile
• G+C 55–67
• Anaerobic
• Cells can be clubbed or branched,
• pairs often in V arrangement;
• ferment carbohydrates to acetate,
• and lactate, but no CO2;
• catalase negative
• Corynebacterium:
• 0.3–0.8 X 1.5–8.0; straight or slightly curved rods with tapered or
clubbed ends; nonmotile
• G+C 51–63
• Facultatively anaerobic
• Cells often arranged in a V formation or in palisades of parallel cells;
catalase positive and fermentative;
• metachromatic granules.
• Frankia
• 0.5–2.0 in diameter; vegetative hyphae with limited to extensive
branching and no aerial mycelium; multilocular sporangia formed
• G+C 66–71
• Aerobic to microaerophilic
• Sporangiospores nonmotile;
• usually fixes nitrogen;
• most strains are symbiotic with angiosperm plants and
• induce nodules.
• Micrococcus
• 0.5–2.0 diameter; cocci in pairs, tetrads, or irregular clusters; usually
nonmotile
• G+C 64–75
• Aerobic
• Colonies usually yellow or red;
• catalase positive with respiratory metabolism;
• primarily on mammalian skin and in soil.
• Mycobacterium
• 0.2–0.6 X 1.0–10; straight or slightly curved rods, sometimes
branched; acid-fast; nonmotile and nonsporing
• G+C 62–70
• Aerobic
• Catalase positive;
• can form filaments that are readily fragmented;
• walls have high lipid content;
• in soil and water; some parasitic
• Nocardia
• 0.5–1.2 in diameter;
• rudimentary to extensive vegetative hyphae that can fragment into
rod-shaped and coccoid forms
• G+C 64–72
• Aerobic
• Aerial hyphae formed;
• catalase positive,
• widely distributed in soil
• Streptomyces
• 0.5–2.0 in diameter;
• vegetative mycelium extensively branched;
• aerial mycelium forms chains of three to many spores
• G+C 69–78
• Aerobic
• Form discrete lichenoid or leathery colonies that often are
pigmented;
• use many different organic compounds as nutrients;
• soil organisms
• Mycobacterium:
• Mycobacterium, composed of slightly curved or straight rods that
sometimes branch or form filaments.
• Mycobacterial filaments differ from those of actinomycetes in readily
fragmenting into rods and coccoid bodies.
• They are aerobic and catalase positive.
• Mycobacteria grow very slowly and must be incubated for 2 to 40
days after inoculation of a solidified complex medium to form a
visible colony.
• Their cell walls have a very high lipid content and contain waxes with
60 to 90 carbon mycolic acids
• The presence of mycolic acids and other lipids outside the
peptidoglycan layer makes mycobacteria acid-fast (basic
fuchsin dye cannot be removed from the cell by acid alcohol
treatment).
• Extraction of wall lipid with alkaline ethanol destroys acid-
fastness.
• Although some mycobacteria are free-living saprophytes,
• Known as animal pathogens.
• M. bovis causes tuberculosis in cattle, other ruminants, and primates.
• Because this bacterium can produce tuberculosis in humans, dairy
cattle are tested for the disease yearly; milk pasteurization kills the
pathogen.
• Prior to widespread milk pasteurization, contaminated milk was a
problematic source of transmission.
• Currently, M. tuberculosis is the chief source of tuberculosis in
humans.
• The other major mycobacterial human disease is leprosy, caused by
M. leprae.
• Nocardia
• These bacteria develop a substrate mycelium that readily breaks into
rods and coccoid elements.
• They also form an aerial mycelium that rises above the substratum
and may produce conidia.
• Almost all are strict aerobes.
• Nocardia is distributed worldwide in soil and aquatic habitats.
• Nocardiae are involved in the degradation of hydrocarbons and waxes
and can contribute to the biodeterioration of rubber joints in water
and sewage pipes.
• Although most are free-living saprophytes,
• Some species, particularly N. asteroides, are opportunistic pathogens
that cause nocardiosis in humans and other animals.
• People with low resistance due to other health problems, such as
individuals with HIV-AIDS, are most at risk.
• The lungs are most often infected,
• The central nervous system and other organs may be invaded.
• The family Nocardiaceae is composed of two genera, Nocardia
• and Rhodococcus.
• Rhodococcus is widely distributed in soils and aquatic habitats.
• It is of considerable interest because members of the genus can
degrade an enormous variety of molecules such as petroleum
hydrocarbons, detergents, benzene, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs),
and various pesticides.
• It may be possible to use rhodococci to remove sulfur from fuels, thus
reducing air pollution by sulfur oxide emissions.
• Streptomyces
• Streptomyces is a large genus; there are around 150 species.
• Members of the genus are strict aerobes, and form chains of
nonmotile spores.
• The three to many spores in each chain are often pigmented.
• Filament may be smooth, hairy, or spiny in texture.
• Streptomyces species are determined by means of a mixture of
morphological and physiological characteristics, including the
following:
Growth of Streptomyces coelicolor on a solid substrate results in the formation of vegetative hyphae
that differentiate into aerial hyphae to form an aerial mycelium, which imparts a white, fuzzy
appearance to the colony surface.The blue background is caused by the diffusion of the pigmented
polyketide antibiotic actinorhodin into the agar.
• The color of the aerial and substrate mycelia,
• spore arrangement,
• surface features of individual spores,
• carbohydrate use,
• antibiotic production,
• melanin synthesis,
• nitrate reduction,
• hydrolysis of urea and hippuric acid.
• Streptomycetes are very important, both ecologically and medically.
• The natural habitat of most streptomycetes is the soil, where they
may constitute from 1 to 20% of the culturable population.
• In fact, the odor of moist earth is largely the result of streptomycete
production of volatile substances such as geosmin.
• Streptomycetes play a major role in mineralization.
• They are flexible nutritionally and can aerobically degrade resistant
substances such as pectin, lignin, chitin, keratin, latex, agar, and
aromatic compounds.
• Streptomycetes are best known for their synthesis of a vast array of
antibiotics.
Nut shell
• Streptomyces, genus of filamentous bacteria of the family
Streptomycetaceae (order Actinomycetales) that includes more than
500 species occurring in soil and water.
• Many species are important in the decomposition of organic matter in
soil, contributing in part to the earthy odour of soil and decaying
leaves and to the fertility of soil.
• Certain species are noted for the production of broad-spectrum
antibiotics, chemicals that the bacteria naturally produce to kill or
inhibit the growth of other microorganisms.
• Several species of Streptomyces are involved in a symbiotic
relationship with species of ants in the genus Attini.
• Attine ants cultivate fungus in, what are termed fungal gardens.
• Streptomyces are characterized as gram-positive aerobic bacteria of
complex form.
• They form a threadlike net called a mycelium that bears chains of spores at
maturity.
• Their branching strands are 0.5 to 1.0 micrometre in diameter.
• The antibiotic producers include:
• S. aureofaciens (yielding chlortetracycline),
• S. rimosis (oxytetracycline; see tetracycline),
• S. griseus (streptomycin),
• S. erythraeus (erythromycin), and
• S. venezuelae (chloramphenicol).
Streptomycetes and plant health
• Colonization strategies of Streptomycetes are poorly understood
• Mechanisms for streptomyces-mediated plant growth promotion
• Streptomyces strains are effective biocontrol agents
• Streptomycetes-mediated ISR
• Volatile-mediated growth stimulation and protection
Frankia
• It grows in symbiotic association with the roots of at least eight
families of higher nonleguminous plants (e.g., alder trees) and is a
microaerophile that can fix atmospheric nitrogen.
• The roots of infected plants develop nodules that fix nitrogen so
efficiently that a plant such as an alder can grow in the absence of
combined nitrogen (e.g., NO3) when nodulated.
• Within the nodule cells, Frankia forms branching hyphae with
globular vesicles at their ends.
• These vesicles may be the sites of nitrogen fixation.
• The nitrogen-fixation process resembles that of Rhizobium in that it is
oxygen sensitive and requires molybdenum and cobalt.
An interference contrast micrograph showing hyphae, multilocular sporangia, and spores
A nodule of the alder Alnus rubra showing cells filled with vesicles of Frankia.
• Some actinomycete produce extracellular cellulases that hydrolyze
cellulose to cellobiose and glucose.
• Some actinomycetes and members of the bacterial genus Cytophaga,
isolated from marine habitats, excrete an agarase that degrades agar.
• They play major roles in the cycling of organic matter; inhibit the
growth of several plant pathogens in the rhizosphere and decompose
complex mixtures of polymer in dead plant, animal and fungal
material results in production of many extracellular enzymes which
are conductive to crop production.
• The major contribution in biological buffering of soils, biological control of
soil environments by nitrogen fixation and degradation of high molecular
weight compounds like hydrocarbons in the polluted soils are remarkable
characteristics of actinomycetes.
• Besides this, they are known to improve the availability of nutrients,
minerals, enhance the production of metabolites and promote plant
growth regulators.
• Furthermore, actinobacteria do not contaminate the environment instead,
they help sustainably in improving soil health by formation and
stabilization of compost piles.
• Formation of stable humus and combine with other soil microorganisms in
breaking down the tough plant residues such as cellulose and animal
residues to maintain the biotic equilibrium of soil by cooperating with
nutrient cycling.
Deep sea Actinomycetes
• Deep sea habitats show extreme variations in available nutrients,
light, oxygen concentration, pressure, salinity, and temperature.
• Deep-sea organisms have developed unique biochemical metabolic
and physiological capabilities, which not only ensure their survival in
this habitat but also provide potential for the production of novel
metabolites absent in terrestrial microorganisms.
• Most of those foreseeably exhibit novel species, genera and families.
• Diverse species of actinomycetes cultured from the deep seafloor
surface, including the deepest sea sediment samples from the
Mariana Trench, have shown great biosynthetic capacities and thus a
potent source of novel natural products.
• Deep sea actinomycete species reported with the maximum number
from Microbacterium, followed by Dermacoccus, Streptomyces and
Verrucosispora.
• Eight deep sea genera of actinomycetes were reported to produce
secondary metabolites, among which Streptomyces is the richest
producer.
• Most of the compounds produced by the deep sea actinomycetes
presented antimicrobial and anti-cancer cell activities.
• Gene clusters related to biosynthesis of desotamide, heronamide, and
lobophorin have been identified from the deep sea derived
Streptomyces.
