Differential characters
Acid phosphatase
Niacin production
Nitrate reduction
Pyrazinamidase
Urease
Biotype I
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+
+
+
+
Biotype II
v
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-
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Mycobacterium africanum
Taxonomy
Morphology
Cultural characteristics
Biochemical characters
Ecology
Pathogenicity
References
Phylum Actinobacteria, Class Actinobacteria, Order Actinomycetales, Suborder Corynebacterineae, Family Mycobacteriaceae, Genus
Mycobacterium,
Mycobacterium africanum Castets et al. 1969.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex comprises Mycobacterium tuberculosis, M. africanum, M. canettii, M. bovis, M. microti, M. orygis,
M. caprae, M. pinnipedii, M. suricattae,  M. mungi, M. dassie,
and M. oryx.
According to Riojas et al. (2018), “phylogenomic analysis of the species of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex demonstrates
that
M. africanum, M. bovis, M. caprae, M. microti and M. pinnipedii are later heterotypic synonyms of Mycobacterium tuberculosis”.
Acid-fast rods about 3 μm in length.
Colonies are flat, dull, and rough when grown on egg medium at 37 ºC. Sodium
pyruvate stimulates growth in egg medium. Growth is homogeneous in Dubos’
medium supplemented with Tween 80 and granular in Youman’s medium
supplemented with bovine serum. Growth in Lebek agar-deeps occurs 15 mm below
the surface. No growth in 5% NaCl. No growth on MacConkey agar.
Isolated from sputum of tuberculous patients in Africa.
West African biotype I was isolated from Dakar, Mauritania, and Yaounde.
East African biotype II was isolated from Burundi and Rwanda.
Sensitive to hydroxylamine (500 mg/l), ethambutol (2 mg/l) and isoniazid (1 mg/l).
Causes human tuberculosis in tropical Africa.
  1. John G. Magee and Alan C. Ward 2012. Family III. Mycobacteriaceae Chester 1897, 63AL in Bergey’s Manual of Systematic
    Bacteriology, Volume Five The Actinobacteria, Part A, Michael Goodfellow & al. (editors), 312-375.
  2. Loredana Gabriela Popa, Mircea Ioan Popa 2009. Identificarea bacililor acido-rezistenti in: Tratat de microbiologie clinica, Dumitru
    Buiuc, Marian Negut, ed. a III-a, Editura Medicala, 881-890, ISBN (13) 978-973-39-0593-6.
  3. Sinha P, Gupta A, Prakash P, Anupurba S, Tripathi R, Srivastava GN. Differentiation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex from
    non-tubercular mycobacteria by nested multiplex PCR targeting IS6110, MTP40 and 32kD alpha antigen encoding gene
    fragments. BMC Infect Dis. 2016;16:123. Published 2016 Mar 12. doi:10.1186/s12879-016-1450-1.
  4. Marco A. Riojas, Katya J. McGough, Cristin J. Rider-Riojas, Nalin Rastogi and Manzour Hernando Hazbón. Phylogenomic analysis
    of the species of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex demonstrates that Mycobacterium africanum, Mycobacterium bovis,
    Mycobacterium caprae, Mycobacterium microti and Mycobacterium pinnipedii are later heterotypic synonyms of Mycobacterium
    tuberculosis. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol. 2018 Jan;68(1):324-332. doi: 10.1099/ijsem.0.002507.
  5. Tsukamura M. Numerical identification of slowly growing mycobacteria. Microbiol Immunol. 1985;29(11):1039‐1050. doi:10.1111/j.
    1348-0421.1985.tb00894.x
  6. M. Tsukamura. Numerical Classification of Slowly Growing Mycobacteria. International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology, Oct.
    1976, p. 409-420.
  7. Rastogi N, Legrand E, Sola C. The mycobacteria: an introduction to nomenclature and pathogenesis. Rev Sci Tech. 2001;20(1):21‐
    54. doi:10.20506/rst.20.1.1265
Biotype I  have similar phenotypic features to Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Biotype II have similar phenotypic features to Mycobacterium bovis.

Negative results for catalase (inactivated at 68 ºC), semiquantitative catalase test, arylsulphatase (10 days), beta-galactosidase, Tween
80 hydrolysis, tellurite reduction, and succinate utilization in the presence of ammoniac nitrogen.
No utilization as sole carbon source of acetate, citrate, succinate, malate, pyruvate, benzoate, fumarate, glucose, fructose, sucrose
ethanol, and propanol.

Variable results for alpha-esterase and nicotinamidase.
(c) Costin Stoica
Antibiogram
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