title: Isolation and characterization of an environmental acid-fast organism producing diphenoloxidase activity in vivo.
abstract: Water and soil samples were collected from natural habitats of the nine-banded armadillo and tested for the presence of acid-fast organisms by injection into the foot pads of experimental mice. Sixteen months post inoculation an acid-fast organism was isolated from the foot pad and spleen of one of the mice. The isolate exhibited diphenoloxidase activity as determined by its ability to convert D-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine to the corresponding quinone. The same organisms grown in vitro lacked detectable diphenoloxidase activity. However, diphenoloxidase activity was observed in acid-fast organisms harvested from spleen tissue of mice experimentally inoculated with a pure culture of the isolate. The environmental isolate was tentatively classed with the Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare complex.
authors.affiliation: U.S. Public Health Service Hospital, Gillis W. Long Hansen's Disease Center, Carville, LA 70721.
authors.forename: E B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Sanchez
authors.forename: C K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Job
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Prabhakaran
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Hastings
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004156:Catechol Oxidase / Q000378:metabolism*; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D015269:Mycobacterium avium Complex / Q000201:enzymology / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D009166:Mycobacterium leprae / Q000201:enzymology; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D014871:Water Microbiology
chemical_list: D004156:Catechol Oxidase