''Mycobacterium xenopi'' is a slow-growing
scotochromogenic
Scotochromogenic bacteria develop pigment in the dark. Runyon Group II nontuberculous mycobacteria such as Mycobacterium gordonae
''Mycobacterium gordonae'' is a species of '' Mycobacterium'' named for Ruth E. Gordon. It is a species of the ...
species of ''
Mycobacterium
''Mycobacterium'' is a genus of over 190 species in the phylum Actinomycetota, assigned its own family, Mycobacteriaceae. This genus includes pathogens known to cause serious diseases in mammals, including tuberculosis ('' M. tuberculosis'') and ...
''. It was first reported by Schwabacher in 1959, having been isolated in
lesion
A lesion is any damage or abnormal change in the tissue of an organism, usually caused by disease or trauma. ''Lesion'' is derived from the Latin "injury". Lesions may occur in plants as well as animals.
Types
There is no designated classifi ...
s found on a ''
Xenopus laevis
The African clawed frog (''Xenopus laevis'', also known as the xenopus, African clawed toad, African claw-toed frog or the ''platanna'') is a species of African aquatic frog of the family Pipidae. Its name is derived from the three short claws ...
'', but the possibility of human infection was not confirmed until 1965. It has been cultured from hot and cold water taps, hospital hot water generators and storage tanks, and other environmental sources.
It has low
pathogenicity
In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ ...
in humans,
and where infections have been found they are closely associated with
immunocompromised
Immunodeficiency, also known as immunocompromisation, is a state in which the immune system's ability to fight infectious diseases and cancer is compromised or entirely absent. Most cases are acquired ("secondary") due to extrinsic factors that a ...
individuals, such as an extrapulmonary malignancy, alcoholism, diabetes mellitus, or immunosuppressive therapy. Pulmonary disease may be chronic, subacute, or acute; symptoms are indistinguishable from those associated with disease caused by ''M. kansasii''.
Radiographic findings with ''M. xenopi'' pulmonary disease are variable but most often include upper lobe cavitary abnormalities similar to tuberculosis.
On solid media, there is an egg next colony produced.
Treatment is usually with macrolide, rifampin, and ethambutol with moxifloxacin.
Type strain
The International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP) formerly the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria (ICNB) or Bacteriological Code (BC) governs the scientific names for Bacteria and Archaea.P. H. A. Sneath, 2003. A short histor ...
: strain
ATCC 19250 = CCUG 28011 = CCUG 31306 = CIP 104035 = DSM 43995 = NCTC 10042.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Type strain of ''Mycobacterium xenopi'' at Bac''Dive'' - the Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase
Acid-fast bacilli
xenopi
Bacteria described in 1959
{{Mycobacterium-stub