Macrococcus

''Macrococcus'' is a genus of Gram-positive cocci belonging to the family Staphylococcaceae. The genus was created in 1998.Kloos, W. E., D. N. Ballard, C. G. George, J. A. Webster, R. J. Hubner, W. Ludwig, K. H. Schleifer, F. Fiedler, and K. Schubert. 1998. Delimiting the genus Staphylococcus through description of ''Macrococcus caseolyticus'' gen. nov., comb. nov. and ''Macrococcus equipercicus'' sp. nov., and ''Macrococcus bovicus'' sp. nov, and ''Macrococcus carouselicus'' sp. nov. Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 48:859-877

History

The first recognised species in this genus (''Macrococcus caseolyticus'') was initially named ''Micrococcus caseolyticus'' by Evans in 1916. It was then renamed ''Staphylococcus caseolyticus'' by Schleifer ''et al'' in 1982. It received its current designation in 1998 by Kloos ''et al''.

Description

Members of the genus ''Macrococcus'' are Gram-positive, nonmotile, non-spore-forming cocci that are coagulase negative and catalase positive. They can be distinguished phenotypically from most staphylococci on the basis of their cellular morphology (they are 2.5 – 4.0 times larger in diameter compared to ''Staphylococcus aureus'') and their positive cytochrome c oxidase reaction. Species in this genus are resistant to bacitracin and lysozyme and sensitive to furazolidone. The DNA base content is 38–45 mol% G+C. The cell walls lack teichoic acid. They are usually unencapsulated.

The type species is ''Macrococcus equipercicus''.

Genome

The first genome of this genus was sequenced in 2009Baba T, Kuwahara-Arai K, Uchiyama I, Takeuchi F, Ito T, Hiramatsu K. (2009) Complete genome sequence of ''Macrococcus caseolyticus'' strain JCSCS5402, orrectedreflecting the ancestral genome of the human-pathogenic staphylococci. J. Bacteriol. 191(4):1180-1190

Evolution

This genus is the closest known relation of the genus ''Staphylococcus''. Within ''Staphylococcus'', the closest relations of ''Macrococcus'' appear to be the ''Staphylococcus sciuri'' group.

Clinical

This genus is not known to cause human disease.

A methicillin resistance gene has been identified in this genus.Tsubakishita S, Baba K K-A T, and Hiramatsu K (2010) ''Staphylococcal'' cassette chromosome mec-Like element in ''Macrococcus caseolyticus''. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 54 (4) 1469-1475 The significance of this discovery is not yet clear.

Etymology

The name ''Macrococcus'' is a masculine New Latin noun composed of the Greek adjective ''makros (μάκρος)'' meaning "large" and the Neolatin masculine noun ''coccus'' intended to mean a coccus shaped bacterium, as it comes from the Greek masculine noun ''kokkos (κόκκος)'' meaning "berry", consequently the noun ''Macrococcus'', means "large coccus".

The eymology of the epithet of the 8 species contained in the genus are:
* For '' M. bovicus'' ( Kloos ''et al''. 1998), the epithet is the masculine form of ''bovicus, -a, -um'', a Neolatin adjective derived from the Latin noun ''bos, bovis'' meaning "cow", given that the type strain was isolated from a cow.
* For '' M. brunensis'' ( Mannerová ''et al''. 2003), the Latin masculine adjective ''brunensis'' meaning from Bruna, the Roman name of the city of Brünn in the Czech Republic, where the type strain was isolated.
* '' M. canis (Gobeli Brawand et al. 2017)
* For '' M. carouselicus'' ( Kloos ''et al''. 1998), the Neolatin adjective ''carouselicus'' meaning "pertaining " to a carousel".
* For '' M. caseolyticus'' ((Schleifer ''et al''. 1982) Kloos ''et al''. 1998), the epithet is a Neolatin adjective which is a combination of the Latin noun ''caseus'' meaning "cheese" and the Neolatin adjective ''lyticus'' (from the Greek adjective ''lutikos (λυτικός)'') meaning "able to dissolve", to mean "casein-dissolving".
* For '' M. equipercicus'' ( Kloos ''et al''. 1998), the epithet is a Neolatin adjective, meaning "pertaining to Percy, the horse", composed of the Latin noun ''equus, -i'' meaning "horse" and the Neolatinised English proper name "Percy" to ''Percus, -i'', which is the name of the Irish thoroughbred horse from which the species was isolated (In Kloos ''et al''. 1998 the component ''equus'' is said to be in the genitive case, but more correctly ''equi" is the root ''equ-" plus a joining "-i-" as first word is a Latin word,"c.f."Help! Latin! How to avoid the most common mistakes while giving Latin names to newly discovered prokaryotes. Microbiología (Sociedad Española de Microbiología), 1996, 12, 473-475. ).
* '' M. hajekii'' ( Mannerová ''et al''. 2003) New Latin genitive case noun ''hajekii'', of Hájek, named after Wenceslaus Hajek, a Czech microbiologist.
* '' M. lamae'' ( Mannerová; ''et al''. 2003) New Latin feminine gender genitive case noun ''lamae'', of Lama, the zoological genus name of the llama.

References

External links

* Summary of the genome dat

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3209541

Staphylococcaceae
Bacteria genera