720 



ORDER V. ACTINOMYCETALES 



Habitat: Probably sparingly distributed 

 in soils. 



5. Nocardia erythropolis (Gray and 

 Thornton, 1928) Waksman and Henrici, 



1948. {Mycobacterium erythropolis Gray and 

 Thornton, Cent. f. Bakt., II Abt., 73, 1928, 

 87; Proactinomyces erythropolis Jensen, 

 Proc. Linn. Soc. New So. Wales, 57, 1932, 

 371; Waksman and Henrici, in Manual, 

 6th ed., 1948, 898.) 



e.ry.thro'po.lis. Gr. adj. erythrus red; 

 Gr.noun polis a city; M.L.noun erythropolis 

 red city. 



Original description supplemented by ma- 

 terial taken from Bynoe (Thesis, McGill 

 University, Montreal, 1931). 



Long, uneven-sided rods and filaments, 

 curved and branching, 0.8 by up to 11.0 

 microns. Coccoid forms not formed. Stains 

 readily. Not acid-fast. Gram-positive. 



Gelatin colonies: After 12 days, round, 

 flat, white, shining; edge entire. Deep 

 colonies: Round, smooth. 



Gelatin stab: After 8 to 14 daj's, growth 

 convex, white, smooth, shining; radiate 

 from center; borders cleft. Line of puncture 

 filiform, erose. 



Agar colonies: Round, 2 to 3 mm in diam- 

 eter, convex, watery white; edge entire. 

 Deep colonies: Lens-shaped. 



Agar slant: Filiform, flat, watery growth; 

 edge undulate. 



Broth: Growth slight; turbid. 



Dorset's egg medium: After 2 weeks, 

 growth raised, moist, finely granular, flesh- 

 colored; irregular margin. 



LoefBer's medium: After 7 days growth 

 as on Dorset's egg medium, but pink. 



Glycerol potato: After 7 days, flat, dry, 

 rough, orange-colored. 



Litmus milk: Pale pink pellicle. 



No acid from glucose, lactose, sucrose or 

 glycerol. 



Nitrites not produced from nitrates. 



Phenol is utilized. 



Optimum temperature, 25° C. 



Optimum pH, between 6.8 and 8.0. 



Distinctive characters: Differs from 

 Nocardia coeliaca and Nocardia actino- 

 morpha in the filiform growth and absence 

 of liquefaction of gelatin. Long rods and 

 filaments. 



Source : Six strains were isolated from soils 

 in Great Britain. 

 Habitat: Presumably soil. 



6. Nocardia leishmanii Chalmers and 

 Christopherson, 1916. (A new acid-fast 

 streptothrix, Birt and Leishman, Jour. 

 Hyg., £, 1902, 120; Chalmers and Christo- 

 pherson, Ann. Trop. Med. and Parasit., 10, 

 1916, 255.) 



leish.ma'ni.i. M.L. gen. noun leishmanii 

 of Leishman; named for W. B. Leishman, 

 one of the two who first isolated this or- 

 ganism. 



Description taken from Erikson (Med. 

 Res. Council Spec. Rept. Ser. 203, 1935, 27). 



Initial cells frequently swollen, large and 

 irregular, aggregated in short chains and 

 then branching out into regular, narrow 

 filaments; at margin of colony on synthetic 

 glj'cerol agar may be seen comparativelj' 

 long, thick segments with accompanying 

 fringe of normal hyphae; later, entire 

 colonies asteroid in appearance, very fine 

 and close, angular branching, with aerial 

 hyphae situated singly; aerial mycelium 

 generally abundant with irregularly cylin- 

 drical conidia. Slightly acid-fast. The 

 latter property must have been attenuated 

 during artificial cultivation, for the or- 

 ganism is reported as markedly acid-fast 

 by the original isolators. 



Gelatin: Small, pink colonies in depths of 

 stab. No liquefaction. 



Glucose agar: Rounded, elevated colo- 

 nies with paler frosting of aerial mycelium; 

 growth becoming piled up; aerial mycelium 

 sparse. 



Glycerol agar: Small, round, pink colo- 

 nies, tending to be umbilicated and piled 

 up; stiff, white aerial spikes. 



Coon's agar: Small, round, colorless colo- 

 nies; stiff white aerial spikes; later a pink 

 tinge. 



Potato agar: Minute, colorless, round 

 colonies; small raised patches of white aerial 

 mycelium. 



Dorset's egg medium: Colorless, confluent 

 growth studded with little wart-like projec- 

 tions bearing stiff aerial spikes; growth be- 

 comes pinkish with a white aerial my- 

 celium; later, growth drab gray; medium 

 discolored. 



