Mycobacterium alvei sp. nov.

Abstract

A new species of rapidly growing, nonphotochromogenic mycobacteria, Mycobacterium alvei, is described. The inclusion of this organism in the genus Mycobacterium is based on its acid fastness, its mycolate pattern, and its G+C content. A study of six strains showed that they form a homogeneous group with an internal phenotypic similarity value of 97 f 2.22%. DNA relatedness studies showed that the six M. ulvei strains which we studied form a single DNA hybridization group which is less than 4% related to 14 other species of the genus Mycobacterium; the AT,,, values determined for the strains which exhibited higher levels of DNA homology were all greater than 7.9OC. A lipid analysis showed that tuberculostearic acid was present. Docosanoic and tetracosanoic acid methyl esters were detected as mycolic acid cleavage products. All six isolates which we tested contained a-mycolic acids and relatively large amounts of a new kind of mycolic acid containing a methoxy group at w-1 position, a characteristic that has not been described previously in mycobacteria. Strain CR-21 is the type strain; a culture of this strain has been deposited in the Collection Nationale

Cord factors from atypical mycobacteria (Mycobacterium alvei, Mycobacterium brumae) stimulate the secretion of some pro-inflammatory cytokines of relevance in tuberculosis

“…Data from the present work indicate that cord factors from M. alvei CR-21 T and M. brumae CR-270 T , two atypical mycobacteria, stimulated RAW 264.7 and THP-1 cells to secrete the above-mentioned cytokines. The two species differed in the fine structure of the mycoloyl substituents of the glycolipid, as expected from the composition reported for whole cells (Ausina et al, 1992;Luquin et al, 1990Luquin et al, , 1993, although they appeared, in general, to be similar in their ability to induce the secretion of the various cytokines in THP-1 cells. Cord factors from both mycobacteria actually consist of complex mixtures of numerous molecular species.…”

“…For more detailed structural features, see Ausina et al (1992), Luquin et al (1990Luquin et al ( , 1993, Minnikin (1982) and Watanabe et al (2001). T with a-and (v-1)-methoxy-mycoloyl substituents (other combinations are also possible, see text).…”

“…1a) and (v-1)- (Fig. 1b) methoxy-mycolates in M. alvei (Ausina et al, 1992;Luquin et al, 1990) and only a-mycolates (Fig. 1c) in M. brumae (Luquin et al, 1993).…”

“…In the present study, the ability of cord factors from Mycobacterium alvei and Mycobacterium brumae to induce several cytokines was determined and compared with that of cord factor of M. tuberculosis H37Rv. M. alvei (Ausina et al, 1992) and M. brumae (Luquin et al, 1993) are saprophytic bacteria and it was noted since their initial descriptions that both species present a rather specific mycolic acid composition, with a- (Fig. 1a) and (v-1)- (Fig.…”

Prosthetic Joint Infection Caused by Mycobacterium alvei in an Elderly Patient

“…Once an RGM is isolated, laboratory staff may differentiate M. alvei from M. fortuitum and M. chelonae by the microbe's failure to grow on MacConkey agar without crystal violet, as well as failure to degrade salicylate, and by its inability to grow in the presence of picric acid, ethambutol, kanamycin, capreomycin, and isoniazid (1). The identification of a mycobacterium to its species level and the availability of its antibiotic susceptibility profile are equally important, because antimicrobial therapy for PJI due to RGM should be guided by the microbe's susceptibility profile as a result of the possible interand intraspecies variability in antimicrobial susceptibility among mycobacteria (6,7).…”