Prions

• Prions (for proteinaceous infectious particle)

cause a variety of neurodegenerative diseases
in humans and other animals, including
scrapie in sheep, bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE or "mad cow disease")
and the human diseases kuru, fatal familial
insomnia disease.
Actinomycetales
• The Actinomycetales are an order of Actinobacteria. A member of the
order is often called an actinomycete.
• The actinomycetes are diverse and contain a variety of subdivisions, as
well as yet-unclassified isolates, mainly because some genera are difficult
to classify because of a highly niche-dependent phenotype.
• For example, Nocardia contains several phenotypes first believed to be
distinct species before their differences were shown to be entirely
dependent on their growth conditions.
• Actinomycetales are generally gram-positive and 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.
 Difficulty of classification
• Actinomycetales are Gram-positive, but several
species have complex cell wall structures that
make the Gram staining unsuitable
(e.g. Mycobacteriaceae).
• Actinomycetales have prokaryotic nuclei, are
susceptible to antibiotics, and have cell walls that
contain muramic acid.
• Actinomycetales have the appearance of filaments
or hyphae, superficially resembling many forms of
hyphal fungi.
 Reproduction
• Actinomycetales have 2 main forms of
reproduction; spore formation and hyphae
fragmentation.
• During reproduction, Actinomycetales can
form conidiophores, sporangiospores, and
oidiospores.
• In reproducing through hyphae fragmentation, the
hyphae formed by Actinomycetales can be a fifth
to half the size of fungal hyphae, and bear long
spore chains.
 Presence and associations
• Actinomycetales can be found mostly in soil and decaying organic
matter, as well as in living organisms such as humans and animals.
• They form symbiotic nitrogen fixing associations with over 200
species of plants, and can also serve as growth promoting or
biocontrol agents, or cause disease in some species of plants.
• Actinomycetales can be found in the human urogenital tract as
well as in the digestive system including the mouth, throat,
and gastrointestinal tract in the form of Helicobacter without
causing disease in the host.
• They also have wide medicinal and botanical applications, and are
used as a source of many antibiotics and pesticides.
 Antimicrobial properties
• Many species of Actinomycetes produce
antimicrobial compounds under certain conditions
and growth media. Streptomycin, actinomycin,
and streptothricin are all medically important
antibiotics isolated from Actinomycetes bacteria.
• Almost two-thirds of the natural antimicrobial
drug compounds used currently are produced by
different species of Actinomycetes.
 Characteristics of Actinomycetes
1. Actinomycetes are unicellular, Gram-positive bacteria.
2. Actinomycetes have prokaryotic cell.
3. These are filamentous bacteria, morphologically they resemble to fungi,
but the filaments of Actinomycetes are thinner than fungal filament
4. Sevel actinomycetes contain mycolic acid and waxy material in their cell
wall along with peptidoglycan (Acid fast cell wall)
5. Generally most genera found in soin and plays important role in soil
mineralization.
6. Reproduction is by fragmentation, formation of asexual spores and by
binary fission.
7. The genus Frankia has capacity to fix atmospheric nitrogen
8. Many actinomycetes are active producers of antibiotics, hence they are
commercially exploited for large scale production.
9. The members of Streptomyces produce gaseous compound geosmin,
which gives typical fragrance of soil and can be experienced during rainy
season.
 Examples of Actinomycetes include:

1. Nocardia
2. Streptomyces
3. Actinoplanes
4. Arthrobacter
5. Bifidobacterium
6. Corynebacterium
7. Frankia
8. Mycobacterium
9. Propinibacterium

• The causative agents of tuberculosis and leprosy are

Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae
respectively, both are from class Actinomycetes.