''Staphylococcus saccharolyticus'' is a

Gram-positive In bacteriology, gram-positive bacteria are bacteria that give a positive result in the Gram stain test, which is traditionally used to quickly classify bacteria into two broad categories according to their type of cell wall. The Gram stain is ...

coagulase Coagulase is a protein enzyme produced by several microorganisms that enables the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin. In the laboratory, it is used to distinguish between different types of ''Staphylococcus'' isolates. Importantly, '' S. aureus' ...

-negative,

anaerobic Anaerobic means "living, active, occurring, or existing in the absence of free oxygen", as opposed to aerobic which means "living, active, or occurring only in the presence of oxygen." Anaerobic may also refer to: *Adhesive#Anaerobic, Anaerobic ad ...

member of the

bacteria Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micr ...

l genus ''

Staphylococcus ''Staphylococcus'', from Ancient Greek σταφυλή (''staphulḗ''), meaning "bunch of grapes", and (''kókkos''), meaning "kernel" or " Kermes", is a genus of Gram-positive bacteria in the family Staphylococcaceae from the order Bacillale ...

'' consisting of single and clustered

cocci Bacterial cellular morphologies are the shapes that are characteristic of various types of bacteria and often key to their identification. Their direct examination under a light microscope enables the classification of these bacteria (and archaea ...

. The species was formerly known as ''Peptococcus saccharolyticus'', but was reclassified on the basis of

16S ribosomal RNA 16S ribosomal RNA (or 16 S rRNA) is the RNA component of the 30S subunit of a prokaryotic ribosome ( SSU rRNA). It binds to the Shine-Dalgarno sequence and provides most of the SSU structure. The genes coding for it are referred to as 16S ...

and biochemical similarity to other members of ''

''.

Pathogenicity

''Staphylococcus saccharolyticus'' may be a cause of infective

endocarditis Endocarditis is an inflammation of the inner layer of the heart, the endocardium. It usually involves the heart valves. Other structures that may be involved include the interventricular septum, the chordae tendineae, the mural endocardium, o ...

. This species is also known to contaminate samples of

platelets Platelets or thrombocytes () are a part of blood whose function (along with the coagulation factors) is to react to bleeding from blood vessel injury by clumping to form a blood clot. Platelets have no cell nucleus; they are fragments of cyto ...

taken from humans, though these contaminated samples generally do not cause ''S. saccharolyticus'' infections during transfusion.Ali, H, Rood, IG, e Korte, D, Ramírez-Arcos, S, Strict anaerobic Staphylococcus saccharolyticus isolates recovered from contaminated platelet concentrates fail to multiply during platelet storage. ''Transfusion'' April 2012, 52:4:916–7, 22490274, 10.1111/j.1537-2995.2011.03510.x

References

External links

Type strain of ''Staphylococcus saccharolyticus'' at Bac''Dive'' - the Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase
saccharolyticus Bacteria described in 1981 {{Staphylococcaceae-stub