The Actinomycete-genus Rhodococcus: A Home for the 'rhodochrous' Complex

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A numerical taxonomic classification study was carried out on 177 strains representing the ''rhodochrous'' complex and the genera Gordona, Mycobacterium and Nocardia. The strains were examined for 92 unit characters and the data were analyzed by computer. Three clusters were defined at the 75-80% similarity level. The 1st was a heterogeneous cluster corresponding to the ''rhodochrous'' taxon whereas the other 2 contained Mycobacterium and Nocardia strains, respectively. The good correlation between the numerical analysis and chemotaxonomic, serological and genetical data collected from previous studies provides sufficient evidence for raising the ''rhodochrous'' taxon to generic status. The generic name Rhodococcus Zopf is considered to have priority over Proactinomyces (Jensen) Bradley and Bond, Jensenia Bisset and Moore and Gordona Tsukamura. In addition to the type species, R. rhodochrous, 9 species are recognized: R. bronchialis, R. coprophilus, R. corallinus comb. nov. [Proactinomyces corallinus (Bergey)], R. erythropolis comb. nov. [Proactinomyces erythropolis (Gray and Thornton)], R. equi comb. nov. [Corynebacterium equi (Magnusson)], R. rhodnii sp. nov., R. rubrus sp. nov., R. rubropertinctus comb. nov. [Nocardia rubropertincta (Heffernan)] and R. terrae.

This publication has 21 references indexed in Scilit: