The Discovery, Isolation, and Classification of Various -Haemolytic Micrococci which Resemble Aerococci

Abstract

This work describes the identification and classification of a hitherto unknown group of a-hemolytic micrococci isolated from bottles containing dregs of fluid medicaments. The majority of the strains were both catalase-positive and nitratase-positive. In view of several similarities between these bacteria and the aerococci described by Shaw, Stitt and Cowan (1951), and later by Williams, Hirch and Cowan (1953), it is proposed that both groups should be incorporated in a new bacterial family, Aerococcaceae, despite the fact that the aerococci are catalase-negative and nitratase-negative. The suggestion that a new family should be established is prompted by the many dissimilarities between both the aforementioned groups and the representatives of the families to which they are closest according to the Bergey system. The new family ought to include one genus, Aerococcus, and two species, one of which, A. viridans, should comprise catalase-negative and nitratase-negative strains, and the other, A. catalasicus, strains which are obligate catalase-positive and may also be nitratase-positive.