Mycobacterium heidelbergense

Mycobacterium heidelbergense
Mycobacterium heidelbergense
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Bacteria
Phylum: Actinobacteria
Order: Actinomycetales
Suborder: Corynebacterineae
Family: Mycobacteriaceae
Genus: Mycobacterium
Species: M. heidelbergense
Binomial name
Mycobacterium heidelbergense
Haas et al. 1998, ATCC 51253

Mycobacterium heidelbergense is a Gram-positive, nonmotile, acid-fast, coccobacilli.

Contents

Description

Dimensions : 0.5-0.8 µm x 2.0-3.0 µm

Colony characteristics

  • Smooth, dome-like and nonpigmented colonies on Löwenstein-Jensen media at 35°C (0.5–1 mm in diameter).

Physiology

  • Slow growth on Löwenstein-Jensen medium at 35°C within 3–4 weeks.
  • Optimal growth at a temperature range from 33°C to 35°C, but also growth at 30°C and 37°C, neither growth at 25°C nor at 45°C.
  • Susceptible to isoniazid, rifampicin and ethambutol.
  • Resistant to pyrazinamide and cycloserine.

Differential characteristics

  • Differentiation from M. malmoense, (bearing a strong phenotypic resemblance to M. heidelbergense), by its wider range of susceptibility to antituberculous drugs, (including isoniazid), and by its inability to grow on Löwenstein-Jensen medium at 25°C.
  • Differentiation of M. triplex from M. heidelbergense by its positive nitrate reduction test and by its characteristic HPLC profile (triple-mycolate pattern).

Pathogenesis

Type strain

  • First isolated from a immunocompetent paediatric patient with cervical lymphadenitis with recurrent fistula formation, in Heidelberg, Germany.

Strain 2554/91 = ATCC 51253 = CIP 105424 = DSM 44471.

References

  • Haas et al. 1997. A new agent of mycobacterial lymphadenitis in children: Mycobacterium heidelbergense sp. nov. J. Clin. Microbiol. 35, 3203-3209.


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