Mycobacterium kubicae sp nov., a slowly growing, scotochromogenic Mycobacterium

A previously uncharacterized, slowly growing, scotochromogenic Mycobacteriu m species was detected by HPLC analysis of the cell-wall-bound mycolic acid s. The mycolic acid pattern standard was shown to be a late-eluting, contig uous peak cluster occurring at approximately 8-9 min. The mycolic acid patt ern was noted to be most similar in number of peaks and range of elution to that reported previously for Mycobacterium asiaticum, However, the relativ e distribution of peaks within the elution range demonstrated a pattern wit h prominent peaks that started to emerge later than the characteristic M, a siaticum pattern. Standard biochemical identification test results were sim ilar to those of the photochromogenic species M, asiaticum, Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis confirmed the genetic uniqueness of the strain s and demonstrated the unclassified mycobacteria to be in a unique, interme diate position between slow and rapid growers in the phylogenetic tree of M ycobacterium. The name Mycobacterium kubicae sp, nov. is proposed for this taxon, The type strain is CDC 941078(T) (= ATCC 700732(T) = CIP 106428(T)).