Comparison of the Cell-Wall Composition of Morphologically Distinct Actinomycetes

Yamaguchi, Tatsuro (The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan). Comparison of the cell-wall composition of morphologically distinct actinomycetes. J. Bacteriol. 89:444-453. 1965.-Cell-wall composition of various morphologically distinct actinomycetes was studied to determine the relationship, if any, between cell-wall composition and morphological criteria in actinomycete taxonomy. The methods used were similar to those of Cummins and Harris. At least five types of cell-wall composition were obtained; however, these were not always correlated with groupings by the conventional classification system. For instance, the sporangium-forming actinomycetes, Actinoplanaceae, had three types of cell-wall composition; the composition of cell walls of Promicromonospora, Micromonospora, and Microbispora was the same as, or similar to, that of Actinomyces, Actinoplanes, and Streptosporangium, respectively; Chainia, Actinopycnidium, Actinosporangium, and Microellobosporia had the same cell-wall composition as Streptomyces, whereas that of Streptoverticillium was slightly different. Possible implications of cell-wall composition and morphological differentiation of hyphae for the taxonomy and phylogeny of actinomycetes are also discussed.