THE GENUS NOCARDIA 



27 



Tabu: 3 

 Comparativi properties of certain acid-fast nocardias (Suter, 1951) 





Growth on 



potato 



Aerial 

 mycelium 



Growth at 

 room temperature 



N. fastidiosa 

 N. leishmanii 

 X . caprat 

 \ .'. pretoriana 

 X. pulmonalis 

 X . paraflinai 

 N. transvalensis 

 X . polychromogt nes 



X. minium 



X . coeliaca 



X. rubropertincta 



X . astt roidt s 



X. salmonicolor 



X. rubra 



X . farcinica 



Mycobacterium. In the case of the Strepto- 

 WM/ces-designated cultures, 83 per cent pro- 

 duced sporulating aerial hyphae, 9 per cent 

 nonsporulating aerial hyphae, and 8 per cent 

 tunned no aerial hyphae. The Nocardia- 

 designated culture- gave, with regard to 

 production of aerial hyphae, 24, 47, and 10 

 per cent , respectively. Among the 214 Nocar- 

 dia-designated cultures, 79 were recognized 

 as representing .Y. asteroides (Eppinger) 

 Blanchard. They all produced acid from glu- 

 cose and glycerol, and utilized acetate, mal- 

 ate, propionate, pyruvate, and succinate. 

 They all grew well at 28 and 35°C, and SS 

 per cent grew at 40°C. Eighty-six per cent 

 reduced nitrate to nitrite, ">4 per cent hy- 

 drolyzed starch, and 34 per cent decomposed 

 gelatin. A Large number of cultures desig- 

 nated as Nocardia (X. corallina, X. ery- 

 thropolis, X. globerula, X. lutea, X. opaca, 

 X. rhodnii, X. rubra) were tentatively as- 

 signed by Gordon and Mihm to the myco- 

 bacteria under M. rhodochrous (Overbeck) 

 now comb. (Table 2). 



Of five species of aerohic act iiiomycetes 

 associated with various mycetomas, Mariat 

 (1957) recognized only N. asteroides and A'. 

 brasiliensis a- nocardiae; Streptomyces >na- 



durae, S. pelletieri, and S. somaliensis were 

 considered as streptomycetes, although 

 .Mariat was not quite certain of their exact 

 systematic position. 



Bojalil and Cerbon (19.59) divided the 

 genus Nocardia into two different metabolic 

 groups: (1) Produces round colonies, adher- 

 ing to wall and bottom of tube; utilizes 

 gelatin as the only source of N and (', break- 

 ing it down into amino acids and giving an 

 alkaline reaction. A', brasiliensis belongs to 

 this group. (2) Produces flaky growth easily 

 dispersed through medium; poor growth on 

 gelatin. A', asteroides belongs to this group. 



A detailed examination of the variability 

 of different strains of two species of Nocar- 

 dia with regard to their ability to utilize 

 different carbon and nitrogen sources, as 

 well as in certain other physiological and 

 biochemical properties, is reported in Table 

 2. Some comparative properties of several 

 nocardiae are given in Table '■>. 



Spalla (1958, 1959) criticized the various 

 descriptions of Nocardia species on the basis 

 of an insuliicient number of characters. He 

 suggested that the following properties be 

 used for characterization and classification 

 of nocardiae: 



