Studies upon an Oral Aerobic Actinomycete

Abstract

SUMMARY: An aerobic actinomycete isolated regularly from the human mouth is described. This organism possesses the cultural, morphological and biochemical characters of Ørskov’s Group 2b, or more specifically, the genus Nocardia. Although the results of cell-wall analyses differ from those obtained in this and previous studies upon other species of Nocardia, we nevertheless feel that provisional classification in the genus Nocardia is valid upon the present evidence. The specific name N. salivae is proposed.