Hioc'HiiMit'AL AC ri\ irii;s 



167 



tlie idontificatioii of act inoinvcctc's. Slack 

 (7 al. made a coinpi'clicnsixc study of the aj;- 

 lilut illation reactions aiiioni!; the \arioiis 

 li-enera of the act inomycetes. 'I'hey demon- 

 strated that tlie mici'oaerophilic foi-ms are 

 seroIoi;icall_\' related. The j)reseiice of com- 

 mon f>;roup antiiiieiis was iiuHcated. Slack r/ 

 al. (M).").")) (Uvided tlie microaeropliilic forms 

 isolat<Hl from ditf(M-(Mit sources into (wo sero- 

 lofj;ical firoujis, tliiis (>stal)lishiii,<>; that habitat 

 does not correlate with antigenic composi- 

 tion. 



Solovieva cf al., Yokovama and Hata, and 

 Okami arc among others who studied the 

 serological reactions of act inomycetes. Gon- 

 zalez-Ochoa and \'as([U(>z-Hoyos (1953) were 

 able to di\-ide the pathogenic actinomycetes 

 into four groups on the basis of their sero- 

 logic relations: (a) the 6or/.s' group, including 

 also certain Xocardia species; (b) the .s-o- 

 maliensis group; (c) the madurae group; and 

 (d) the paraguaycus'i.s gi'oup, the last show- 

 ing serologic relations with the streptomyces 

 isolated from soil, namely S. albus, S. griscus, 

 and S. lavendidae. 



The fact was always emphasized that 

 many of the difficulties involved in the analy- 

 sis and interpretation of the results of the 

 antigenic and serological reactions of actino- 

 mvcetes are due to lack of certaintv as to the 



organisms used by an investigator. Okami 

 (!!).')(')) was able to demonst rate that aggluti- 

 nation techni(|Ues olfer promising tools in 

 the classification ui Stnptomjiccs species. 



\\'o(lehouse and Hackiis suggested an in- 

 genious method for iitili/.ing the antigenic 

 properties of actinomycetes for taxonomic 

 purj)oses. The double diffusion techniciue on 

 agar media was used. Precipitation bands 

 ar(> formed wiien the diffusion from antigenic 

 sources encroach upon that of antiserum. 

 U two extracts are alike, their bands join 

 to form arches above the serum source. If 

 they are unlike, they cross each other with- 

 out interference. Various degrees of relation- 

 ship i)etween organisms can thus be ob- 

 tained. There was l)ut little overlapping with 

 the other genera of the Actinomycetales. 



Other Biochemical Activities 



Because of their special significance, sev- 

 eral other biochemical properties of actino- 

 mycetes are treated in detail in separate 

 chapters. These include the formation })y 

 actinomycetes of enzjanes, of \arious lytic 

 mechanisms, pigments, vitamins, and anti- 

 biotics. The antibiotics are receiving par- 

 ticular consideration because of their grow- 

 ing practical importance (Chapter 15, and 

 Chapters 31-30, Volume III). 



