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Abstract
SUMMARY: Simple chemical analyses were carried out on 198 nocardioform bacteria by means of paper- and thin-layer chromatography. The strains considered to belong to the genus Nocardia contained the lipid LCN-A, arabinose and meso-diaminopimelic acid. All the representative strains from the ‘Mycobacterium’ rhodochrous complex possessed this lipid though in certain cases the characteristic spot had a slightly lower R F value than that of the reference lipid LCN-A from the standard strain of Nocardia asteroides. The genera Actinomadura, Mycobacterium, Oerskovia and Streptomyces did not contain lipid LCN-A and the distribution of the other two chemical characters varied. The method used to detect lipid LCN-A is simple and reliable and permits the separation of nocardias and ‘M.’ rhodochrous strains from allied taxa. These results correlate well with other trends in the taxonomy of nocardioform bacteria and confirm the value of chemotaxonomic characters, especially lipids, in the classification and identification of these organisms.
- Accepted:
- Published Online: