Figure 1. Complex life cycle of streptomycetes. (A) Morphological diversity of different Streptomyces strains. (B) The life cycle of S. coelicolor. Monogenomic spores of S. coelicolor germinate and grow into the soil. When nutrition becomes limited the vegetative mycelia digest themselves to serve as substrate for aerial mycelia growing out of the soil. Those aerial hyphae differentiate into spores again through insertion of septa.