''Actinobacillus'' is a genus of
Gram-negative, nonmotile and non-spore-forming, oval to rod-shaped bacteria occurring as parasites or pathogens in mammals, birds, and reptiles.
It is a member of the family
Pasteurellaceae.
The bacteria are facultatively anaerobic or aerobic, capable of fermenting carbohydrates (without production of gas), and of reducing nitrates. The genomic DNA contains between 40 and 47 mol % guanine plus cytosine.
''Actinobacillus'' (''
Pasteurella'') ''ureae'' and ''A. hominis'' occur in the respiratory tracts of healthy humans and may be involved in the pathogenesis of
sinusitis,
bronchopneumonia, and meningitis. ''A. actinomycetemcomitans'' occurs in the human
oral microflora,
and together with anaerobic or capnophilic organisms (
HACEK
The HACEK organisms are a group of fastidious Gram-negative bacteria that are an unusual cause of infective endocarditis, which is an inflammation of the heart due to bacterial infection. HACEK is an abbreviation of the initials of the genera o ...
group organisms) may cause endocarditis. Actinobacilli are susceptible to most antibiotics of the beta-lactam family,
aminoglycosides,
tetracyclines,
chloramphenicol
Chloramphenicol is an antibiotic useful for the treatment of a number of bacterial infections. This includes use as an eye ointment to treat conjunctivitis. By mouth or by injection into a vein, it is used to treat meningitis, plague, cholera, a ...
, and many other antibacterial
chemotherapeutics.
An analysis of ''A. actinomycetemcomitans'' indicated it was
monophyletic
In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...
with ''Haemophilus aphrophilus'' and ''H. segnis'', and they were proposed to be reclassified as a new genus, ''
Aggregatibacter'' (from the Latin ''aggregare'', meaning "to come together").
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q310714
Bacteria genera
Pasteurellales