Dermabacter hominis
A Microbial Biorealm page on the genus Dermabacter hominis
Classification
Higher order taxa
Bacteria; Actinobacteria; Actinobacteria (class); Microccocales; Dermabacteraceae
Species
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NCBI: Taxonomy |
Dermabacter hominis
Description and significance
Dermabacter hominis can be found most commonly on human skin. It has also been isolated in a variety of other clinical specimens, including abscesses, infections of bone, a wound, or an eye, and blood cultures. Though considered an opportunistic human pathogen when first isolated in 1988, there has not been any observed direct mortality in relation to D. hominis (as of January 2014).
Genome structure
A draft genome sequence of D. hominis 1368, a multidrug resistant strain of the species D. hominis, revealed 2,507,630 base pairs. Also included in the draft genome of D. hominis 1368 are one non-coding RNA gene, 21 pseudogenes, 48 tRNA genes, and 2,227 protein-coding genes.
Cell and colony structure
D. hominis are non-motile, mesophilic, and rod shaped. Before assignment to its current genus, D. hominis was grouped with coryneform groups 3 and 5 of the Center for Disease Control. It forms white, convex, creamy or dry colonies on nutrient and blood agar. The colonies grow to 1-1.5 millimeters in diameter after 48 hours.
Metabolism
A facultative anaerobe, D. hominis is able to ferment glucose, maltose, sucrose and lactose. D. hominis is irregularly shaped (some sources list it as being coccus-shaped while others list it as rod-shaped) and is catalase positive and able to decarboxylate ornithine and lysine.
Ecology
Habitat; symbiosis; contributions to the environment. metagenomic data link
Pathology
Though there are no recorded cases of mortality as a direct result of the presence of D. hominis, it has caused peritonitis (an inflammation of the peritoneum) in a patient receiving renal replacement therapy with peritoneal dialysis.
D. hominis is resistant to daptomycin, which is rare for gram-positive organisms. As of 2014, no definitive reason for this resistance was known, though it was not thought that the resistance was due to use of daptomycin (which is a common cause of resistance).
References
[Sample reference] [http://ijs.sgmjournals.org/content/62/2/330; Sylvie Cousin, Marie-Laure Gulat-Okalla, Laurence Motreff, Catherine Gouyette, Christiane Bouchier, Dominique Clermont, and Chantal Bizet. Lactobacillus gigeriorum sp. nov., isolated from chicken crop. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol February 2012 62:330-334; published ahead of print March 18, 2011.} [doi:10.1099/ijs.0.028217-0.]
Edited by W. David Nesher of Dr. Lisa R. Moore, University of Southern Maine, Department of Biological Sciences, http://www.usm.maine.edu/bio
