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Taxonomic Studies on the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Series
Author(s) -
Tsukamura Michio,
Mizuno Shoji,
Toyama Haruo
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
microbiology and immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.664
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1348-0421
pISSN - 0385-5600
DOI - 10.1111/j.1348-0421.1985.tb00827.x
Subject(s) - mycobacterium bovis , biology , subspecies , tuberculosis , mycobacterium tuberculosis complex , mycobacterium tuberculosis , ethionamide , microbiology and biotechnology , zoology , antibiotics , ethambutol , streptomycin , medicine , pathology
Numerical classification of slowly growing mycobacteria, including 159 strains received as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, M. bovis, M. africanum , and M. microti , was carried out using 88 characters, and the following results were obtained. 1) All 159 strains received as M. tuberculosis, M. bovis, M. africanum , and M. microti formed one cluster, and no clear‐cut differentiation among these four species was achieved. These four species should be reduced to one species, M. tuberculosis . 2) Within the cluster, two subclusters appeared, with a number of strains located outside the subclusters. One subcluster was composed, except for two strains, of only M. tuberculosis strains, and another of M. bovis and M. africanum strains only. The subclusters were regarded as subspecies tuberculosis and subspecies bovis , respectively. M. africanum was regarded as a synonym of M. bovis, i.e ., a niacin‐positive variety of M. bovis (subsp. bovis ). 3) An intermediate subcluster was observed outside the M. tuberculosis and M. bovis subclusters. This may be regarded as intermediate between the two subspecies, tuberculosis and bovis . 4) In the last two decades, the characteristics of M. tuberculosis strains isolated from patients seemed to be approaching those of M. bovis strains. The recently isolated strains showed stronger arylsulfatase activity and lower resistance to thiophene‐2‐carboxylic acid hydrazide than the strains isolated 16 to 19 years ago.