Skip to content

SYNOPTIC DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYLUM ACTINOBACTERIA

SYNOPTIC DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYLUM ACTINOBACTERIA (MARGULIS 1974)

EUBACTERIA> FIRMICUTAE> ACTINOBACTERIA
PHYLUM ACTINOBACTERIA LINKS

Description of Phylum

Hierarchical Classification

The following description comes mainly from Margulis and Schwartz (1998), Barnes (1984b), Brock et al. (1994), and Tudge (2000).
  • I. SYNONYMS: Actinomycetes, actinobacteria, high GC Gram-positive bacteria.
  • II. PHYLUM CHARACTERISTICS:
    • A. Structure
      • Cell Form: Variable; cocci (text with tooltip) A coccus (cocci, pl.) is a spherical cell form. , rods (text with tooltip) A rod is an elongate cell form such that it has distinct ends (called poles). , club-shaped unicells to fungus-like mycelial (text with tooltip) A mycelium (mycelia, pl.) is a mass of hyphae or fungus-like filaments. colonies.
      • Cell Wall: Gram+ (text with tooltip) A Gram + cell retains the blue-black crystal-violet color following destaining with alcohol during the Gram Stain procedure. .
      • Motility: Usually non-motile but some form motile swarmer cells (text with tooltip) Swarmer cells are motile propagules that are usually produced in specialized asexual structures. .
    • B. Physiology
      • O2 Tolerance: Aerobes.
      • Substrates: Quite variable and complex, some can feed on petroleum or organic compounds in the soil and aquatic systems; some are commensal or parasitic in, or on, plants or animals.
      • Products: In general, they produce typical aerobic metabolic products, some can ferment and produce small organic acids. Some produce antibiotics.
    • C. Other: Very diverse group of bacteria; some are quite complex and form fungus-like mycelia.
    • D. Ecology: Free-living in soils and aquatic sediments, some commensals and parasites.
LITERATURE CITED

Atkinson W., J. Hamborsky, L. McIntyre, and S. Wolfe. eds. 2007. Diphtheria. in: Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (The Pink Book) (10th ed.). Washington DC: Public Health Foundation. pp. 59–70. http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/dip.pdf.

Auerbacher, I. 2006. Finding Dr. Schatz, The discovery of streptomycin and a life it saved. iUniverse. Lincoln, NE.

Barnes, R. S. K. 1984b. Kingdom Monera. IN: Barnes, R.S.K., ed. A synoptic classification of living organisms. Sinauer Associates. Sunderland, Mass.

Brock, T. D., M. T. Madigan, J. M. Martinko, and J. Parker. 1994. Biology of Microorganisms. 7th ed. Prentice Hall. Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

Bentley, S.D., K. F. Chater, A.-M. Cerdeño-Tárraga, G. L. Challis, N. R. Thomson, K. D. James, D. E. Harris, M. A. Quail, H. Kieser, D. Harper, A. Bateman, S. Brown, G. Chandra, C. W. Chen, M. Collins, A. Cronin, A. Fraser, A. Goble, J. Hidalgo, T. Hornsby, S. Howarth, C.-H. Huang, T. Kieser, L. Larke, L. Murphy, K. Oliver, S. O’Neil, E. Rabbinowitsch, M.-A. Rajandream, K. Rutherford, S. Rutter, K. Seeger, D. Saunders, S. Sharp, R. Squares, S. Squares, K. Taylor, T. Warren, A. Wietzorrek, J. Woodward, B. G. Barrell, J. Parkhill, D. A. Hopwood. 2002. Complete genome sequence of the model actinomycete Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2). Nature. 417: 141-147.

Broussard, G. W., M. B. Norris, A. R. Schwindt, J.. W. Fournie, R. N. Win, M. L. Kent, and D. G. Ennis. 2008. Chronic Mycobacterium marinum infection acts as a tumor promoter in Japanese Medaka (Oryzias latipes). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology. Part C. 149: 152-160.

Chen, M.-Y., S.-H. Wu, G.-H. Lin, C.-P. Lu, Y.-T. Lin, W.-C. Chang, and S.-S. Tsay. 2004. Rubrobacter taiwanensis sp. nov., a novel thermophilic, radiation-resistant species isolated from hot springs. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 54: 1849-1855.

Clark, D. A. and P. R. Norris. 1996. Acidomicrobium ferrooxidans gen. nov., sp. nov.: mixed-culture ferrous iron oxidation with Sulfobacillus species. Microbiology. 142: 785-790.

Clum, A., M. Nolan, E. Lang, T. Glavina Del Rio, H. Tice, A. Copeland, J.-F. Cheng, S. Lucas, F. Chen, D. Bruce, L. Goodwin, S. Pitluck, N. Ivanova, K. Mavromatis, N. Mikhailova, A. Pati, A. Chen, K. Palaniappan, M. Göker, S. Spring, M. Land, L. Hauser, Y.-J. Chang, C. C. Jeffries, P. Chain, J. Bristow, J. A. Eisen, V. Markowitz, P. Hugenholtz, N. C. Kyrpides, H.-P. Klenk, and A. Lapidus. 2009. Complete genome of Acidimicrobium ferrooxidans type strain (ICP). Standards in Genomic Sciences. 1: 38-45.

Garrity, G. M., M. Winters, and D. Searles. 2001. Bergey’s manual of systematic bacteriology. 2nd ed. Springer-Verlag. New York.

Garrity, G. M., J. A. Bell, and T. G. Lilburn. 2003. Taxonomic Outline of the Prokaryotes. Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology. 2nd edition. Release 4.0. Springer-Verlag. New York. pp. 1-397.

Ghosh, J., P. Larsson, B. Singh, B. M. F. Pettersson, N. N. Islam, S. N. Sarkar, S. Dasgupta, and L. A. Kirsebom. 2009. Sporulation in mycobacteria. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 106(26): 10781-10786.

Holmes, A. J., J. Bowyer, M. P. Holley, M. O’Donoghue, M. Montgomery, and M. R. Gillings. 2000. Diverse, yet-to-be-cultured members of the Rubrobacter subdivision of the Actinobacteria are widespread in Australian arid soils. FEMS Microbiology Ecology. 33: 111-120.

Krogius-Kurikka, L., A. Kassinen, L. Paulin, J. Corander, H. Makivuokko, J. Tuimala, and A. Palva. 2009. Sequence analysis of percent G+C fraction libraries of human faecal bacterial DNA reveals a high number of Actinobacteria. BMC Microbiol.

Lawson, P. A., H. L. Greetham, G. R. Gibson, C. Giffard, E. Falsen, and M. D. Collins. 2005. Slackia faecicanis sp. nov., isolated from canine faeces. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 55: 1243-1246.

Margulis, L. and K. Schwartz. 1998. Five Kingdoms, An Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth. 3rd Edition. W. H. Freeman and Co. New York.

Montalvo, N. F., N. M. Mohamed, J. J. Enticknap, and R. T. Hill. Novel actinobacteria from sponges. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. 87(1): 29-36.

Nakazawa, F., Poco, S.E., Ikeda, T., Sato, M., Kalfas, S., Sundqvist, G., Hoshino, E. (1999). Cryptobacterium curtum gen nov., sp. nov., a new genus of Gram-positive anaerobic rod isolatated from human oral cavities. Int. J. syst. Bact. 49, 1193-1200.

Niva. M., A. Hernesmaa, K. Haahtela, M. Salkinoja-Salonen, K. Sivonen, and K. Haukka. 2006. Actinobacterial communities of boreal forest soil and lake water righ in mycobacteria. Boreal Environment Research. 11: 45-53.

Schell, M. A., M. Karmirantzou, B. Snel, D. Vilanova, B. Berger, G. Pessi, M. C. Zwahlen, F. Desiere, P. Bork, M. Delley, P. D. Pridmore, and F. Arigoni. 2002. The genome sequence of Bifidobacterium longum reflects its adaptation to the human gastrointestinal tract. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science U S A. 102(26): 14422–14427.

Singleton, D. R., M. A. Furlong, A. D. Peacock, D. C. White, D. C. Coleman, and W. B. Whitman. 2003. Solirubrobacter pauli gen. nov., sp. nov., a mesophilic bacterium within the Rubrocacteridae related to common soil clones. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 53: 485-490.

Tudge, C. 2000. The Variety of Life, A Survey and a Celebration of all the Creatures That Have Ever Lived. Oxford University Press. New York.

Warnecke, F., R. Amann, and J. Pernthaler. 2004. Actinobacterial 16S rRNA genes from freshwater habitats cluster in four distinct lineages. Environmental Microbiology. 6(3): 242-253.

Williams, S. T. and M. E. Sharpe, eds. 1989. Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology. Volume 4. Williams and Wilkins. New York.

Yoshinaka, T., K. Yano, and H. Yamaguchi. 1973. Isolation of a highly radioresistant bacterium, Arthrobacter radiotolerans nov. sp. Agric. Biol. Chem. 37:2269-2275.
By Jack R. Holt. Last revised: 02/11/2013
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Document Footer

Skip to toolbar