| Species/Subspecies: | Mycobacterium tuberculosis | ||||||||
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| Categories: | Zoonotic; notifiable diseases and bacteria | ||||||||
| Etymology: | Genus name: small fungus-like rod. Species epithet: of tuberculosis. | ||||||||
| Significance: | [Very important] | ||||||||
| Taxonomy: | Class Actinomycetia Order Mycobacteriales Family Mycobacteriaceae Genus Mycobacterium |
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| Type Strain: | H37Rv = ATCC 27294. | ||||||||
| Macromorphology (smell): | |||||||||
| Micromorphology: | Acid-fast rods (0.4 x 3.0 µm) | ||||||||
| Gram +/Gram -: | G+ (but difficult to gram stain) | ||||||||
| Metabolism: | Aerobic | ||||||||
| Catalase/Oxidase: | |||||||||
| Spec. Char.: | M. tuberculosis is a slow grower (it takes more than 7 days to see colonies with the naked eye). | ||||||||
| Disease: | Human tuberculosis, which is a zoonosis. |
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| Hosts: | Different animal species (inkluding humans) | ||||||||
| Clinical Picture: | |||||||||
| Virulence Factors: | Produce mycobactin, which is a so-called siderophore. | ||||||||
| Genome Sequence: |
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| 16S rRNA Seq.: |
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| Taxonomy/phylogeny:
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About 175 species have been described within genus Mycobacterium and this genus is closely related to Rhodococcus, Nocardia and Corynebacterium. M. tuberculosis, M. bovis and M. caprae are very closely related to each other and have sometimes been regarded as subspecies of M. tuberculosis.
It is common to use the term Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC or MTBC) or Mycobacterium tuberculosis clade for the following very closely related species: M. africanum, M. bovis, M. canetti, M. caprae and M. tuberculosis and some other species, which are less important. |
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| Legislation: | Tuberculosis is notifyable in Sweden and is regulated by the law of epizootic diseases. M. tuberculosis belongs to category C as a potential bioterrorism agent according to NIAID. | ||||||||
| Link: | Epiwebb - om epizootisjukdomar [in Swedish] | ||||||||
| Updated: | 2023-03-02 |