In addition to feeding the fungal garden with foraged food, mainly consisting of leaves, it is protected from Escovopsis by the antibiotic secretions of Actinobacteria (genus Pseudonocardia).
A hypha (plural hyphae) is a long, branching filamentous structure of a fungus, and also of unrelated Actinobacteria.
Owing to his contribution to microbial systematics, a bacterial genus of Actinobacteria was named after him as Goodfellowia.
Root nodules that occur on non-legume genera like Parasponia in association with Rhizobium bacteria, and those that arise from symbiotic interactions with Actinobacteria Frankia in some plant genera such as Alnus, vary significantly from those formed in the legume-rhizobia symbiosis.
As with other species in the genus Elaeagnus, E. multiflora plants are actinorhizal, growing in symbiosis with the actinobacterium Frankia in the soil.
Micrococci, like many other representatives of the Actinobacteria, can be catabolically versatile, with the ability to utilize a wide range of unusual substrates, such as pyridine, herbicides, chlorinated biphenyls, and oil.
Bacteria that do associate with plants include the actinobacteria Frankia, which form symbiotic root nodules in actinorhizal plants, and several cyanobacteria (Nostoc) associated with aquatic ferns, Cycas and Gunneras.
The enzyme PBGD contains a 4 amino acid insertion which is present in all Streptomyces species and Kitasatospora setae, but not any other Actinobacteria.