Classification and Identification of Slowly Growing Mycobactcria II

Biological and Biochemical Characters of Mycobacterium kansasii

Abstract

Biological and biochemical characters of ten strains of Mycobacterium kansasii have been described.
Colonial morphology: Rough. Photochromogenic. No pigmentation in dark. Growth at 7 days on Löwenstein-Jensen medium (LJ medium); at 2 weeks on Sauton agar. Growth at 28°C and 37°C; but no growth at 45°C. Growth on Ogawa egg medium containing 0.5mg/ml sodium salicylate. Niacin: Negative. Growth on Ogawa egg medium containing 50μglml thiophen-2-carbonic acid hydrazide. No tolerance to 0.1% picric acid in Sauton agar. No tolerance to 0.25mg/ml hydroxylamine in Ogawa egg medium. Positive urease and positive nicotinamidase, but negative reactions for other eight amidases among Bönicke's ten amidases. Nitrate reduced. Two-week-arylsulfatase: Positive. None of organic acids utilized as sole carbon source (organic acids tested as sole carbon source for growth: acetate, citrate, succinate, malate, pyruvate, benzoate, malonate and fumarate). No acid from glucose, mannose, galactose, arabinose, xylose, rhamnose, raffinose, inositol, mannitol and sorbitol. Glucose utilized as sole carbon source for growth; sucrose utilized by four of ten strains; fructose, ethanol and propanol not utilized. L-Glutamate not utilized or, if any, slightly utilized as sole (simultaneous) carbon and nitrogen source. L-Glutamate, succinamide and nitrate utilized as sole nitrogen source for growth; L-serine utilized by four of ten strains; urea utilized by two of ten; acetamide utilized by two of ten strains tested; benzamide, pyrazinamide, isonicotinamide, nicotinamide and nitrite not utilized.
Albino type of M. kansasii was produced in the laboratory by Tsukamura (S) (1963) and Runyon (1964). Scotochromogenic type of this organism also was reported by Tacquet et al. (1965) and Hauduroy et al. (1965). These findings arised necessity for an identification method of this organism without use of photochromogeneity as a marker character. Over-all similarity of any test strains to the above characters would indicate that the test strains belong to the species M. kansasii, even if the test strains were nonphoto-chromogenic or scotochromogenic. Differential diagnosis of this organism from other mycobacteria also was discussed.