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CHAPTER 1.1.15 l ac i demnoN- -mu i re t cabenyroC

Corynebacterium—Nonmedical WOLFGANG LIEBL

Introduction Corynebacterium is a genus within the actinomycetes subphylum of Gram-positive eubacteria (Stackebrandt et al., 1997). These rod-shaped bacteria have DNA with a high G+C content and irregular (“coryneform”) cell morphology. The phylogeny and taxonomy of corynebacteria (see Phylogeny and Taxonomy) have been changed many times, but modern methods of chemotaxonomy and molecular systematics now provide adequate means for the reliable identification and classification of Corynebacterium species. Currently, there are more than 50 validated species of Corynebacterium. A large number of these (30) was described in the last ten years. Most Corynebacterium species are considered to be of medical significance and are therefore treated in chapter Corynebacterium—Medical in the second edition, whereas the following will be treated: C. ammoniagenes (other name: Brevibacterium ammoniagenes [basonym]; Cooke and Keith, 1927; Collins, 1987b) C. amycolatum (Collins et al., 1988) C. callunae (Lee and Good, 1963; Yamada and Komagata, 1972a; Yamada and Komagata, 1972b) C. casei (Brennan et al., 2001) C. flavescens (Barksdale et al., 1979) C. glutamicum (other names: Brevibacterium divaricatum [subjective synonym], Corynebacterium lilium [subjective synonym]; Kinoshita et al., 1958; Abe et al., 1967; see Liebl et al., 1991) C. mooreparkense (Brennan et al., 2001) C. terpenotabidum (formerly Arthrobacter spec.; Ikeguchi et al., 1988; Takeuchi et al., 1999) C. variabile (formerly C. variabilis, nom. corrig. Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 48:1073; other names: Arthrobacter variabilis [basonym], Caseobacter polymorphus [subjective synonym]; Müller, 1961; Collins, 1987a; Collins, 1989b) C. vitaeruminis (formerly C. vitarumen, nom. corrig. Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 47:908; other name: Brevibacterium vitarumen (basonym); Bechdel et al., 1928; Lanéelle et al., 1980)

In addition to the species listed above, certain bacteria frequently encountered in the relevant literature will be discussed, i.e., “C. lilium,” “Brevibacterium flavum,” “Brevibacterium lactofermentum” and Brevibacterium divaricatum. None of these nomenclatural “Brevibacterium” species is a true member of the genus Brevibacterium. Numerous data exist (Abe et al., 1967; Minnikin et al., 1978; Suzuki et al., 1981; W. Liebl et al., unpublished data) indicating their close relatedness if not identity with C. glutamicum. Indeed, the type strains of B. divaricatum and C. lilium and some representative strains of “B. flavum” and “B. lactofermentum” were transferred to Corynebacterium glutamicum (Liebl et al., 1991). These organisms treated in this chapter were originally isolated from very diverse habitats. Some of them are industrially important bacteria used in large-scale biotechnological applications. The characteristic features of the genus Corynebacterium as outlined by Collins and Cummins (1986b) are also true for the bacteria of this section: Gram-positive (sometimes unevenly stained), non