Actinomycetes and Common Tastes and Odors

Abstract

ПРНЕ actinomycetes, or ray fungi, X are a group of organisms that are closely related to the bacteria and the fungi. Ordinarily, one thinks of actinomycetes as associated with soil, although, in the present paper, consideration is given to an aquatic group which probably came from the land originally. Actinomycetes are readily differentiated from bacteria and fungi. They are colonial forms, and those occurring in water may be raised on synthetic media, producing surface colonies that present a smooth or wrinkled appearance. The colonies are tough and leathery and often show small filaments growing high above the media. The actinomycetes may look like true bacteria in certain laboratory preparations because they fragment easily and some of the reproductive stages resemble bacteria cells. In the observation of unstained organisms, the branching and spore formation may resemble a true fungus. Actinomycetes may produce odors in laboratory culture, and, in liquid media, the products of their normal growth can be isolated for chemical studies. Over 50 years ago Rullman (1, 2) described a type of actinomycete that produced a pungent odor which he described as earthy. Biejerinck (3) had the same opinion and concluded from his work that possibly some of the odors freed from newly tilled soils arose from actinomycetes growing there. Berthelot and Andre (4) also regarded the odors produced by actinomycete cultures to be very much like that encountered in freshly plowed soil. Adams (5, 6) cited the earthy taste in potable waters that had been filtered from the Nile River