Mycobacterium gordonae

Gram-positive, nonmotile and moderate to long acid-fast rods.

• Commonly found in tap water and soil. Casual resident in human sputum and gastric lavage specimens.

Colony characteristics

• Smooth, with yellow or orange scotochromogenic colonies. Even though they are scotochromogenic pigment is intensified by growing in continuous light.

Physiology

• Growth on Löwenstein-Jensen medium and Middlebrook 7H10 agar within 7 or more days at 37 °C (optimal 25 °C).
• Does not grow in the presence of ethambutol (1 mg/L), isoniazid (10 mg/L) and sodium chloride (5%).
• Some strains can grow using carbon monoxide as a carbon and energy source.^[2]

Differential characteristics

• A commercial hybridisation assay (AccuProbe) to identify M. gordonae exists.^[3]
• Intraspecies variability in 16S rDNA sequences

• Rarely if ever implicated in disease processes even if patients are immunocompromised. Widely distributed in environment and usually a contaminant in laboratory specimens.^[4]
• Biosafety level2

Strain ATCC 14470 = CCUG 21801 = CCUG 21811 = CIP 104529 = DSM 44160 = JCM 6382 = NCTC 10267.

• Bojalil LF, Cerbon J, Trujillo A (June 1962). "Adansonian classification of mycobacteria". Journal of General Microbiology. 28 (2): 333–46. doi:10.1099/00221287-28-2-333. PMID 13870716.

• Type strain of Mycobacterium gordonae at BacDive - the Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase