FAMILY I. MYCOBACTERIACEAE 



697 



B. Have not been grown on non-living culture media. 



1. Occurs in man. Has not been transmitted experimentally to any other species of 

 animal. 



13. Mycobacterium leprae. 



2. Occurs in wild rats and mice. Experimentally transmissible to rats, mice and 

 hamsters. 



14. Mycobacterium lepraemurium. 



1. Mycobacterium phlei Lehmann and 

 Neumann, 1899, pro parte. (Timotheebacil- 

 lus or Grasbacillus I, Moeller, Thera- 

 peutischen Monatsch., 12, 1898, 607; Moel- 

 ler, Deutsch. med. Wochnschr., 24, 1898, 376; 

 Lehmann and Neumann, Bakt. Diag., 2 

 Aufl., 2, 1899, 411.) 



phle'i. Gr. noun phleus a flowering reed; 

 M.L. neut.n. Phleum a grass genus, tim- 

 othy; M.L. gen. noun phlei of timothy. 



Description taken from Gordon and Smith 

 (Jour. Bad., 66, 1953,43). 



Rods, 1.0 to 2.0 microns in length after 

 cultivation for 48 hours on glycerol agar at 

 37° C., coccoid forms to short rods; those 

 of a few cultures longer, averaging 2.5 to 3.0 

 microns. Non-motile. Some with irregularly 

 and some with uniformly staining proto- 

 plasm. Filaments and branching rarely, if 

 ever, seen. Acid-fastness after incubation 

 for 5 days at 28° C. from 5 to 100 per cent. 



Gelatin: Variable, limited hydrolysis by 

 Frazier method. 



Bennett's and soil extract agar colonies: 

 Dense with smooth edges, dense with fringe 

 of filaments, or filamentous. Filaments frag- 

 menting into short rods. 



Glycerol agar slants : Growth at 2 to 4 days 

 usually rough, thin, dry, spreading, pale 

 yellow; at 10 to 14 days, thick, waxy, 

 coarsely wrinkled, deep yellow to orange. 

 Growth of a few cultures smooth, soft, 

 spreading, butyrous, deep yellow to orange. 



Milk agar plate: No hydrolysis of casein. 



Indole not produced (Penso, Ortali, Gau- 

 diano, Princivalle, Vella and Zampieri, 

 Rend. dell'Istituto Superiore di Sanita, 14, 

 1951, 855). 



Acid from glucose, mannitol and sorbitol 

 (with ammoniacal nitrogen) ; usually from 

 mannose and arabinose. Variable reaction 

 on xylose, trehalose, maltose and galactose. 

 No acid from rhamnose, inositol, dulcitol, 

 lactose or raffinose. 



Starch is hydrolyzed. 



Citrate, succinate and malate usually 

 used as sole sources of carbon. 



Tyrosine not decomposed (Gordon and 

 Smith, Jour. Bact., 69, 1955, 503). 



Benzoate not utilized (Gordon and Smith, 

 loc. cit.). 



Nitrites produced from nitrates. 



Temperature relations: Growth at 28° to 

 52° C. inclusive; variable at 55° and 15° C.; 

 negative at 10° C. Survives 60° C. for 4 

 hours. 



Optimum pH, 6.0; range, 5.5 to 8.8 (Penso 

 et al., op. cit., 1951, 855). 



Salt tolerance: Scant, if any, growth in 

 glycerol broth containing 5 per cent NaCl. 



Pathogenicity: Not pathogenic for mouse, 

 rat, guinea pig, rabbit, chicken, frog or carp 

 (Penso et al., loc. cit.). 



Source: Originally isolated from hay and 

 grass. 



Habitat: Widely distributed in soil, dust 

 and on plants. 



2. Mycobacterium smegmatis (Trevi- 

 san, 1889) Lehmann and Neumann, 1899. 

 (Smegma bacillus, Alvarez and Tavel, Arch, 

 phys. norm, et path., ^y, (ser. 3, 6), 1885, 303; 

 Bacillus smegmatis Trevisan, I generi e le 

 specie delle Batteriacee, 1889, 14; Lehmann 

 and Neumann, Bakt. Diag., 2 Aufl., 2, 1899, 

 403; Mycobacterium lacticola Lehmann and 

 Neumann, ibid., 408.) 



smeg'ma.tis. Gr. neut.n. smegma an un- 

 gent or ointment, a detergent, in Modern 

 Latin sebaceous humor; M.L. gen.n. smeg- 

 matis of smegma. 



Description taken from Gordon and Smith 

 (Jour. Bact., 66, 1953, 45). 



Rods, 3.0 to 5.0 microns in length after 

 48-hours cultivation on glycerol agar at 

 37° C., slender, of varying lengths, often 

 filamentous, sometimes branched, curved 

 and beaded, occasionally swollen with 

 ovoid, deeper staining bodies. Acid-fastness 



