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Table 1 Different groups of actinomycetes

From: Secondary metabolites and biodiversity of actinomycetes

Section

Characteristics

Nocardioformactinomycetes

Aerobic, may be acid-alcohol fast; occur as rods, cocci, and branched filaments or form substrate and aerial mycelium that fragment; wall chemotype IV; contain mycolic acids.

Actinomycetes with multilocular sporangia

Aerobic to facultatively anaerobic; mycelium divides in all planes, no aerial hyphae, wall chemotype III.

Actinoplanetes

Aerobic sporoactinomycetes, nonmotile, spores may be enclosed within vesicles; no aerial mycelium; wall chemotype II; whole-organism hydrolysates contain arabinose and xylose.

Streptomycetesand related genera

Aerobic sporoactinomycetes; form an extensively branched substrate and aerial mycelium.

Thermomonospora and relatedgenera

Aerobic spordactinomycetes; form an extensively branched substrate and aerial mycelium, both of which may carry single of chains of spores; spores either motile or non-motile; wall chemotype III

Thermoactinomycetes

The stable filaments produce aerial growth. Single spores (endospores) are formed on both aerial and vegetative filaments. All species are thermophilic. The cell wall contains meso-DAP but no characteristic amino acids or sugars.

Other genera

They all produce aerial growth-bearing chains of spores

  1. DAP diaminopimelic acid