%0 Journal Article %A van Ingen, J. %A Boeree, M. J. %A Kösters, K. %A Wieland, A. %A Tortoli, E. %A Dekhuijzen, P. N. R. %A van Soolingen, D. %T Proposal to elevate Mycobacterium avium complex ITS sequevar MAC-Q to Mycobacterium vulneris sp. nov. %D 2009 %J International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, %V 59 %N 9 %P 2277-2282 %@ 1466-5034 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/ijs.0.008854-0 %K ITS, internal transcribed spacer %K MAC, Mycobacterium avium complex %K MIC, minimal inhibitory concentration %I Microbiology Society, %X The Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) consists of four recognized species, Mycobacterium avium, Mycobacterium colombiense, Mycobacterium intracellulare and Mycobacterium chimaera, and a variety of other strains that may be members of undescribed taxa. We report on two isolates of a scotochromogenic, slowly growing, non-tuberculous Mycobacterium species within the M. avium complex from a lymph node and an infected wound after a dogbite of separate patients in The Netherlands. The extrapulmonary infections in immunocompetent patients suggested a high level of virulence. These isolates were characterized by a unique nucleotide sequence in the 16S rRNA gene, 99 % similar to Mycobacterium colombiense, and the MAC-Q 16S–23S internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence. Sequence analyses of the hsp65 gene revealed 97 % similarity to M. avium. The rpoB gene sequence was 98 % similar to M. colombiense. Phenotypically, the scotochromogenicity, positive semi-quantitative catalase and heat-stable catalase tests, negative tellurite reductase and urease tests and susceptibility to hydroxylamine and oleic acid set these isolates apart from related species. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis of cell-wall mycolic acid content revealed a unique pattern, related to that of M. avium and M. colombiense. Together, these findings supported a separate species status within the Mycobacterium avium complex. We propose elevation of scotochromogenic M. avium complex strains sharing this 16S gene and MAC-Q ITS sequence to separate species status, for which the name Mycobacterium vulneris sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NLA000700772T (=DSM 45247T=CIP 109859T). %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/ijsem/10.1099/ijs.0.008854-0