Caseobacter polymorphus gen. nov., sp. nov., a Coryneform Bacterium from Cheese

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Abstract
Morphological and physiological characteristics of 13 non-orange coryneforms isolated from the rinds of soft cheeses were compared with 23 coryneforms (12 soil isolates identified as arthrobacters and 22 activated-sludge isolates). The cheese strains can be differentiated from the arthrobacters mainly by their physiological features, which correlate well with differences in the amino acid and sugar compositions of the cell walls of the two groups of organisms: meso-diaminopimelic acid and arabinose are present in the cell walls of the non-orange cheese coryneforms and lysine and glucose are present in the cell walls of the soil arthrobacters. The non-orange cheese coryneforms contain corynomycolic acids, indicating a certain relationship with corynebacteria. From these and earlier studies on morphology and physiology and from hybridization experiments and deoxyribonucleic acid base composition determinations on the non-orange cheese coryneforms, it is concluded that these organisms belong to a new genus and species, for which the names Caseobacter and C. polymorphus, respectively, are proposed. Strain AC 256 is designated the type strain of C. polymorphus.
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