Differentiation of the vegetative and sporogenous phases of the actinomycetes. 11. Factors affecting the development of the aerial mycelium

SUMMARY: Variation in the Actinomyces coelicolor species-group comprises loss of pigment and aerial mycelium, and occasionally of agar liquefaction. Stable variants may arise from degenerate, aged, vegetative mycelium, but do not normally do so when the vegetative mycelium is kept in vigorous condition by frequent subcultiva-tion in suitable media. Single spore isolations from the aerial mycelium of typical and of variant colonies show that there may be inherent differences in the sister-spores of the same chain. Thus, in an agar-liquefying strain 3 of 15 spores had lost the power to produce pigment and to liquefy agar; and an atypical colony of the same strain yielded three viable isolates each with a strong tendency towards sectoring, with the ultimate production of a colourless, non-agar-liquefying variant as well as the typical growth. A non-agar-liquefying strain, which by prolonged cultivation in the vegetative phase had lost its power of producing the red-blue indicator pigment, yielded a variant giving rise to sectored colonies with occasional restoration of the blue pigment. Spontaneous occurrence of variants may be detected in certain spores of the aerial mycelium of a well-grown typical colony, although it is more readil