Characteristics of Arthrobacter cumminsii, the Most Frequently Encountered Arthrobacter Species in Human  Clinical Specimens

Funke, Guido; Pagano-Niederer, Maja; Sjödén, Berit; Falsen, Enevold

doi:10.1128/jcm.36.6.1539-1543.1998

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Journal article

Characteristics of Arthrobacter cumminsii, the Most Frequently Encountered Arthrobacter Species in Human Clinical Specimens

Funke, Guido Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Zürich, CH-8028 Zürich, Switzerland, 1 and
Pagano-Niederer, Maja Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Zürich, CH-8028 Zürich, Switzerland, 1 and
Sjödén, Berit Culture Collection, University of Göteborg, S-41346 Göteborg, Sweden 2
Falsen, Enevold Culture Collection, University of Göteborg, S-41346 Göteborg, Sweden 2

Published in:

Journal of Clinical Microbiology. - American Society for Microbiology. - 1998, vol. 36, no. 6, p. 1539-1543

Microbiology (medical)

English During a 2-year period, 10 strains of Arthrobacter cumminsii were isolated in or received by a Swiss routine clinical bacteriology laboratory, and 5 further isolates were referred to a Swedish bacteriology reference center over a 5-year period, makingA. cumminsii the most frequently encounteredArthrobacter species in these two laboratories. The present report outlines the clinical features of the 15 A. cumminsii strains and presents an extended biochemical characterization of this microorganism. A. cumminsiiexhibits a unique cellular fatty acid pattern with the consistent presence of C14:0i
and C14:0 fatty acids as well as relatively large amounts of C16:0i
and C16:0 fatty acids usually not seen in other Arthrobacter spp. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was found to be a useful tool for confirmation of the identification of A. cumminsii. The MICs of 39 antimicrobial agents were determined, and it was demonstrated that aminoglycosides and quinolones had only weak activities against A. cumminsii strains, in contrast to their activities against most other coryneform bacteria. As a result of the extended characterization of A. cumminsii, an emended description of this species is presented. Due to the lack ofA. cumminsii in established identification systems, it is most likely that this species is underdiagnosed in many routine clinical bacteriology laboratories.

Language

English

Open access status

bronze

Identifiers

DOI 10.1128/jcm.36.6.1539-1543.1998
ISSN 1098-660X

Persistent URL

https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/54186

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