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Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Veterinary bacteriology: information about important bacteria
Veterinary bacteriology


Species/Subspecies: Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Categories: Zoonotic; notifiable diseases and bacteria
Etymology: Genus name: small fungus-like rod.
Species epithet: of tuberculosis.
Significance:  [Very important]   
Taxonomy:
Phylum
Actinomycetota
Class
Actinomycetia
Order
Mycobacteriales
Family
Mycobacteriaceae 
Genus
Mycobacterium
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).
Special Media:
Disease:Human tuberculosis, which is a zoonosis.
Hosts: Different animal species (inkluding humans)
Clinical Picture:
Virulence Factors: Produce mycobactin, which is a so-called siderophore.
Genome Sequence:
Acc-noStrainSize (bp)Genome
NC_002755 CDC1551 4 403 837  

16S rRNA Seq.:
Acc-noStrainNumber of NTOperon
X58890 NCTC 7416 H37RvT 1 536 

Taxonomy/phylogeny:
Mycobacterium tuberculosis  
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.

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

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