Nocardia beijingensis, is a pathogenic bacterium to humans: the first infectious cases in Thailand and Japan

Nocardia beijingensis, a recently established new species, is an isolate from soil in China. During our taxonomic studies on 450 nocardial clinical isolates in Thailand and Japan, 17 strains from Thailand and 1 strain from Japan were found to have a similar physiological characteristic to those of N...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Mycopathologia (1975) 2004-02, Vol.157 (2), p.155-161
Main Authors: Kageyama, Akiko, Poonwan, Natteewan, Yazawa, Katsukiyo, Mikami, Yuzuru, Nishimura, Kazuko
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antimicrobial agents
DNA, Bacterial - analysis
DNA, Ribosomal - analysis
Humans
Infections
Japan
Male
Molecular Sequence Data
Nocardia - classification
Nocardia - genetics
Nocardia - isolation & purification
Nocardia - pathogenicity
Nocardia Infections - microbiology
Opportunistic Infections - microbiology
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
Physiology
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Thailand
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Nocardia beijingensis, a recently established new species, is an isolate from soil in China. During our taxonomic studies on 450 nocardial clinical isolates in Thailand and Japan, 17 strains from Thailand and 1 strain from Japan were found to have a similar physiological characteristic to those of N. beijingensis, such as a drug susceptibility pattern to three antimicrobial agents. Our phylogenetic studies on these 18 strains by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis confirmed that these strains belong to N. beijingensis species. Phylogenetically, these newly isolated N. beijingensis strains were found to be classified into two distinct clades: one is a Japanese clade and other is a Chinese clade, including a reference strain and 17 Thai strains. This is the first report of human infection due to N. beijingensis strains, and we propose that the bacterium be categorized as an opportunistic infectious group regardless of its original isolation from soil.
ISSN:0301-486X
1573-0832
DOI:10.1023/b:myco.0000020588.60081.37