I2Q 



ORDER V. ACTINOMYCETALES 



Glucose-asparagine-agar: Good growth, 

 restricted, rather flat; edges lobate; surface 

 warty, glistening, at first pale orange, later 

 ochre-yellow; consistency crumbly. After 5 

 to 6 weeks the growth is paler with many 

 small, round, raised, yellow, secondary 

 colonies. 



Agar: Rich, salmon-pink to yellow, soft 

 growth. 



Glucose-nutrient agar: Excellent growth, 

 spreading, flat, dense; edges lobate; surface 

 folded, glistening, yellow, gradually chang- 

 ing to deep orange-red. 



Nutrient broth: Fair growth; thin pel- 

 licle; granular sediment, at first cream- 

 colored, later red; broth clear at first, 

 slightly turbid after 3 weeks. 



Milk: Good growth; pellicle of small, 

 cream-colored granules after 2 days ; later a 

 thick orange sediment. Not coagulated but 

 appears slightly cleared after 5 weeks, the 

 reaction becoming alkaline. 



Potato. Good growth, raised, warty, 

 crumbly, glistening, at first buff, changing 

 to orange and finally to almost blood-red. 



Indole not produced. 



No acid from glucose or glycerol. 



Sucrose not inverted, although it is read- 

 ily utilized with sodium nitrate as a source 

 of nitrogen. 



Starch not hydrolyzed. 



Paraffin readily utilized as a source of 

 carbon. 



Phenol not utilized. 



Nitrites produced from nitrates. 



Nitrate, ammonium salts, asparagine and 

 peptone are utilized almost equally well 

 with glucose as source of carbon, although 

 the growth is most rapid with peptone. 



No growth in oxygen-free atmosphere. 



Relationships to other species: Closely 

 related to Nocardia corallina. 



Source: Isolated from soil from Rotham- 

 sted, England, by means of an ethylamine- 

 enriched medium, at 37° C. 



Habitat: Probably soil. 



16. Nocardia rubropertincta (Hefferan, 

 1904) Waksman and Henrici, 1948. (Butter- 

 bacillus, Grassberger, Miinch. med. Wochn- 

 schr., 46, 1899, 343; Bacillus rubropertinctus 

 Hefferan, Cent. f. Bakt., II Abt., 11, 1904, 

 460; Proactinomyces rubropertinctus Reed, in 



Manual, 5th ed., 1939, 835; Waksman and 

 Henrici, in Manual, 6th ed., 1948, 904.) 



rub.ro. per. tinc'ta. L. adj. ruber red; L. 

 prefix per very; L. part. adj. tinctus dyed, 

 colored; M.L. adj. rubropertinctus heavily 

 dyed red. 



Original description supplemented by ma- 

 terial taken from Hefferan (op. cit., 1904, 

 460) and from Jensen (Proc. Linn. Soc. New 

 So. Wales, 49, 1934, 32). 



Small rods, 0.3 to 0.9 by 1.5 to 3.0 microns. 

 Cells in 18- to 24-hour agar culture in beauti- 

 ful angular arrangement, after 2 to 3 days 

 nearly coccoid, 0.6 by 0.8 micron. Ten- 

 dency for branching on glycerol agar after 

 2 to 3 days, but branching does not occur 

 commonly though granules of aerial myce- 

 lium are sometimes seen (Jensen). Non- 

 motile. Not acid-fast (Grassberger). 

 Acid-fast (Hefferan). Variable (Jensen). 

 Gram-positive. 



Gelatin colonies: Irregular with crenate 

 margin and folded surface. Coral-red. 



Gelatin stab: Surface growth like the 

 colonies. Growth in stab at first thin, then 

 granular to arborescent with chromogene 

 sis. No liquefaction. 



Agar colonies: Small, granular, becoming 

 pink to red depending on composition of 

 agar. 



Agar slant: Dry, lustreless (R) to glisten- 

 ing (S), pink to vermilion-red. 



Broth: Faint, uniform turbidity with 

 salmon-pink pellicle (in scales) which is re- 

 newed on surface as it settles to form a red 

 sediment (Hefferan, Jensen). 



Litmus milk: Thick, fragile, dull coral-red 

 surface scales and sediment. Unchanged 

 (Hefferan) to alkaline and somewhat viscid 

 after 3 to 4 weeks (Jensen). 



Potato: Slow but excellent intensive red 

 growth becoming dull orange (Jensen). 



Benzine, petroleum, paraffin oil and par- 

 affin are utilized as sources of energy; no 

 action on manganese dioxide (Sohngen, 

 Cent. f. Bakt., II Abt., 40, 1914, 554). 



Nitrites not produced from nitrates; ni- 

 trates, ammonia and asparagine are almost 

 as good sources of nitrogen as peptone 

 (Jensen). 



Aerobic to facultatively anaerobic. 



Grows well between 20° and 37° C. (Jen- 

 sen). 



