Species of bacterium
Mycobacterium branderi is a slowly growing, nonchromogenic Mycobacterium first isolated from patients in Finland. Etymology: of Brander, referring to Eljas Brander, the former head of the Tuberculosis Laboratory of the National Public Health Institute, Finland, who collected the strains.
Description
Microscopy
- Acid-fast delicate slender rods that are often slightly curved, 1.2 to 3 um long.
Colony characteristics
- Colonies are nonchromogenic and produce smooth, often umbonate, off-white to grayish colonies on Middlebrook 7H11 agar.
Physiology
- Slowly growing, reaching full colony size after 2 to 3 weeks.
- Growth is equally good at 37C and 45C and is only slightly delayed at 25C.
- The type strain is negative for Tween 80 hydrolysis, catalase, urease, and nitrate reductase activities and niacin.
- Strongly positive for arylsulfatase activity in 14-day tests and moderately to weakly positive for nicotinamidase and pyrazinamidase activities.
- In susceptibility tests the type strain was resistant to isoniazid, rifampin, pyrazinamide, and cycloserine but susceptible to ethambutol, streptomycin, ethionamide, and capreomycin.
Differential characteristics
- Differentiation by 16S rRNA sequencing
- Distinguishing of M. branderi from M. celatum by pigment production
- Differentiation of M. branderi from M. xenopi on the basis of good growth of M. branderi at room temperature, the lack of pigment production by M. branderi
- Differentiation of M. branderi and M. cookii: M. cookii is scotochromogenic and does not grow at 37 °C.
