Haiku for Actinomyces
Born in glass of fire
And ice.
Filaments eat C-Oh-Two
So earth cools.
By Dr. JeM YinJoy
How to pronounce Actinomyces.
Actinomyces is pronounced “Act-Tin-Oh-My-sees.”
The Microbiology
Actinobacteria is the name of phylum of Gram-positive bacteria that live in both aquatic and terrestrial microniches and display a diverse array of shapes. The bacteria within this phylum are believed to have evolved about 2.7 billion years ago.
Actinobacteria are tolerant to dry conditions (desiccation) which is partly due to their Gram positive wall layer, and could be an ancestral trait as their lineage is ancient and the ability to tolerate dry conditions would have been necessary to their ancestors as they crept their tendrils out of the primordial soup to occupy the terrestrial habitats of early earth.
Their discovery as ancient rock eaters came about during investigations of weathered volcanic rocks in Iceland. It was here that microbiologists noticed very strong “earthy” smells emanating from weathered basaltic glass outcrops after it rained. This pungent ‘earthy’ smell, is known to all microbiologists as coming from a compound called “geosmin.” The actinomycetes bacteria are known to produce this smell.
The microbiological testing of these glass outcrops shown that Actinobacteria are contributing to the weathering of volcanic rock.
Actinobacteria can contribute to volcanic rock weathering and, therefore, the carbonate-silicate cycle. Given their ancient lineage, it is likely they have played a role in rock weathering for over two billion years
Shape and size – While individual bacteria are rod-shaped and within 0.5 to 2 um in size, Actinomyces colonies form fungus-like branched networks of hyphae, can extend as biofilms over many centimeters within the rocks.
This mat formation by these actinomyces bacteria is what led to the erroneous assumption that the bacteria are a type of fungus, and so the name “Actinomyces” or ray fungus was given to it and it still used.
These discoveries were done with scanning electron microscopy of rock samples taken from volcanic glass sites. It was found that Streptomyces (a type of actinomyces bacteria) had formed biofilms on the surface of many of the highly weathered basaltic glasses from Valafell.
As biofilms the microbes form pervasive growth throughout the rock pores and over the surface,establishing a coherent mycelium over the rock surface.
On the less weathered basaltic glass from Stapafell and the crystalline basalt that was analyzed with scanning electron microscopy, the microbes had formed large spherical balls of cells of varying sizes.
On the crystalline basalt, the colonies were macroscopically visible as large white clumps, although in some locations coherent mycelial sheets were also observed.
The Spiritual significance
Actinomyces bacteria can trace their lineage back millions of years and might have been the earliest bacteria to crawl out of the watery depths of young earth and on to the dry barren terrestrial environment, still unsettled with tectonic upheavals and spewing ash.
But by virtue of their strong flexible bacterial walls, and their talent for spreading as micro-mycelia, they were able to withstand the dry land, better than their other bacterial sisters who still swam in the primordial soup.
Icelandic lore speaks of the “Hidden people” such as faeries, sprites and other magical creatures. Perhaps Icelandic ancestors knew of the actinomyces bacteria or “sensed them” and this gave rise to the mythology of the evanescent creatures that they spun stories about as populating the recesses of the volcanic outcrops.
It is the yearning within the human soul, for something greater, some divine explanation for the upheavals in our external worlds, that motivates us too.
When those of us, especially the most hypersensitive and spiritually awake, find ourselves drowning in the sea of human misery, when the emotional mass of our world becomes so overwhelming, we find ways to leap out of it.
Some of us succumb to recreational mind altering substances, some of us drown sorrows with over indulging in alcohol, some of us disappear into the world of fantasy, whether online or in movies, books or a multitude of other media-based distractions.
And some of us, find the rigors of exercise and sports to curb the sharp need we all come up against, when the world and its pain become too much to bear.
A few of us, find a way to make that quantum leap, out of the roiling mass of primitive emotions, out of that soup of human despair.
And we discover, after the leap, that new skills were needed to make that sudden transition, and that to stay on the surface of all those woes, we must continue to hone those skills and spread out, mycelia-like, to hold fast on to our new land.
In this new dry land, we thrive, and create new cooperative communities with like minded others who have also grown the spiritual, emotional, physical and mental moxie to make the commitment to over ride all that misery and find new ways to enjoy the gift of life.