CLASSIFICATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF MYCOBACTERIA .2. TESTS EMPLOYING NITRATE AND NITRITE AS SUBSTRATE

Abstract

Mycobacteria vary in their ability to reduce nitrate and nitrite. The degree of reduction of these substrates may be correlated with other properties used to classify these organisms. Techniques for measuring these activities have been modified to make them suitable for screening of large numbers of acid-fast cultures. The results of these analyses are recorded in a manner suitable for coding for computer application to Adansonian classification. Five characters have been so derived that yield moderate to high degrees of homogeneity for a number of subgroups and species of mycobacteria and marked differentiation among such subgroups and species.