Mycobacterium austroafricanum
Taxonomy
Morphology
Cultural characteristics
Biochemical characters
Ecology
Pathogenicity
References
Phylum Actinobacteria, Class Actinobacteria, Order Actinomycetales, Suborder Corynebacterineae, Family Mycobacteriaceae, Genus
Mycobacterium,
Mycobacterium austroafricanum Tsukamura et al. 1983.

Possible synonym:
Mycobacterium vanbaalenii Khan et al. 2002.
Acid-fast rods, 0.5 x 2-6 μm long. No cross-barring. No cords formation.
Colonies are mucoid, yellowish in the dark, with pigment intensifying after exposure to
light. Grows within 3 days. Grows at 28 and 37 ºC, but does not grow at 42, 45 or 52
ºC. Can grow on media supplemented with 5% NaCl (contradictory results) or picric
acid (0.2%). No growth on MacConkey agar without crystal violet.
Isolated from South African waters.
Susceptible to hydroxylamine (500 μg/ml), ethambutol (5 μg/ml), isoniazid (1 and 10 μg/ml), and NH
2OH.HCl (250 μg/ml). Resistant to
rifampin (25 μg/ml) and thiophene-2-carboxylic acid hydrazide (1 μg/ml).
Considered to be non-pathogenic.
  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. Tsukamura M, Van Der Meulen HJ, Grabow WOK. Numerical taxonomy of rapidly growing, scotochromogenic mycobacteria of the
    Mycobacterium parafortuitum complex: Mycobacterium austroafricanum sp. nov. and Mycobacterium diernhoferi sp. nov., nom.
    rev. Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 1983; 33:460-469.
  3. Luquin M, Ausina V, Vincent-Levy-Frebault V, Laneelle MA, Belda F, Garcia-Barcelo M, Prats G, Daffe M. Mycobacterium brumae
    sp. nov., a rapidly growing, nonphotochromogenic mycobacterium. Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 1993; 43:405-413.
  4. Vuorio R, Andersson MA, Rainey FA, Kroppenstedt RM, Kampfer P, Busse HJ, Viljanen M, Salkinoja-Salonen M. A new rapidly
    growing mycobacterial species, Mycobacterium murale sp. nov., isolated from the indoor walls of a children's day care centre. Int
    J Syst Bacteriol 1999; 49:25-35.
  5. Nouioui I, Brunet LR, Simpson D, Klenk HP, Goodfellow M. Description of a novel species of fast growing mycobacterium:
    Mycobacterium kyogaense sp. nov., a scotochromogenic strain received as Mycobacterium vaccae. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2018;
    68:3726-3734.
Positive results for arylsulfatase (3 and 7 days), thermo-stable catalase (68 ºC), beta-esterase, nitrate reduction, nicotinamidase,
pyrazinamidase, tellurite reduction, and  urease. Acid is produced from glucose, but not from mannose.
Can utilize as sole carbon source citrate, mannitol, xylose, glucose, fructose, acetate, malate, fumarate, succinate, pyruvate, sucrose,
inositol, mannitol, ethanol, and propanol.

Negative results for acetamidase, acid phosphatase, benzamidase, semiquantitative catalase test (most strains),
beta-galactosidase, niacin accumulation, isonicotinamidase, salicylamidase, allantoinase, and succinamidase.
No utilization as sole carbon source of acetamide, rhamnose, sorbitol, trehalose, benzoate, and malonate.

Variable results for alpha-esterase, Tween 80 hydrolysis, utilization of arabinose.
(c) Costin Stoica
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