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Mycopathologia (2006) 162: 281287 Springer 2006 DOI 10.1007/s11046-006-0045-6
Majority of Actinomadura clinical isolates from sputa or bronchoalveolar lavage uid in Japan belongs to the cluster of Actinomadura cremea and Actinomadura nitritigenes, and the description of Actinomadura chibensis sp. nov
Ahmed Hanafy, Junji Ito, Soji Iida, Yingqian Kang, Takahisa Kogure, Katsukiyo Yazawa, Takashi Yaguchi & Yuzuru Mikami
Research Center for Pathogenic Fungi and Microbial Toxicoses, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-ku, Chiba, 260-8673, Japan
Received 14 March 2006; accepted in revised form 18 July 2006
Abstract
In Japan during 19962004, 21 actinomycete strains that have madurose as the diagnostic cell-wall sugar and show true branching in their substrate and aerial mycelia were isolated from sputa or bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) uid of patients with pulmonary infections or who were suspected of having related infections. Chemotaxonomic studies showed that all the isolates belong to the genus Actinomadura. Among them, six and seven strains were classied respectively into clusters of Actinomadura nitritigenes and Actinomadura cremea based on 16S rDNA analyses because their 16S rDNA similarities to those respective species were greater than 99.5%. To our knowledge, this is rst report that strains of above two species were isolated from clinical specimens. Neither Actinomadura madurae nor Actinomadura pelletieri strain was isolated, and one new species, Actinomadura chibensis, was proposed; the remaining seven strains were not assigned into any known species, suggesting the presence of another new Actinomadura species.
Key words: Actinomadura cremea, Actinomadura nitritigenes, Actinomadura strains, clinical isolates, clinical specimens, 16S rDNA
Introduction
Actinomadura madurae and Actinomadura pelletieri are Gram-positive, nonacid-fast, aerobic actinomycetes of the order Actinomycetales. Both species are known as a major cause of actinomycotic mycetomas: supercial or deep suppurating tumefactions of the skin and subcutaneous tissues that result from soil contamination of a penetrating wound [1]. Although mycetomas caused by the organisms have been reported throughout the world, most of the reported infections by these species are from tropical and subtropical countries [24]. On the other hand, it was rst reported by McNeil et al. [1] in 1990 that A. madurae, an
isolate from nonmycetomic regions, accounted for11.5% of the aerobic actinomycetes from clinical specimens that were referred to the Actinomycete Laboratory of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), USA. They further suggested thatA. madurae plays some...