Isolation and characterization of an environmental acid-fast organism producing diphenoloxidase activity in vivo.
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.
Harris
E B
EB
U.S. Public Health Service Hospital, Gillis W. Long Hansen's Disease Center, Carville, LA 70721.
Sanchez
R M
RM
Job
C K
CK
Prabhakaran
K
K
Hastings
R C
RC
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
D004156:Catechol Oxidase