VetBact
VetBact logo

VetBact

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Veterinary bacteriology: information about important bacteria
Veterinary bacteriology


Species/Subspecies: Staphylococcus epidermidis
Categories: Causes hemolysis; in the normal flora
Etymology: Genus name: bunch of grape-like cocci (coccus means a grain or berry).
Species epithet: of epidermis (=the outer layer of skin).
Significance:  [Important]   
Taxonomy:
Phylum
Bacillota
Class
Bacilli
Order
Bacillales
Family
Staphylococcaceae 
Genus
Staphylococcus
Type Strain: ATCC 14990 = CCUG 18000 A = CCUG 39508 = NCTC 11047.
Macromorphology (smell):
     
Medium sized, white, opaque and flat colonies (1-2 mm in diameter). Many strains produce hemolysis on blood agar.
Micromorphology: Non-motile cocci (0.8-1 µm in diameter), which often appear in pairs or in tetrads. May also appear as single cells or in small clusters.
Gram +/Gram -:
 
G+
Metabolism: Facultatively anaerobic
Catalase/Oxidase:+/-
Other Enzymes: Coagulase-, esculinase -, ornithine decarboxylase -, tryptophanase -, urease +.
Biochemical Tests: Citrate -, hydrogen sulfide (H2S) +, methyl red -, Voges-Proskauer +.
Fermentation of carbohydrates:

  
D-glucose
+
lactose
+
maltose
+
L-rhamnose
-
sucrose
+
L-arabinose
-
cellobiose
-
D-mannitol
-
salicin
-
trehalose
-
glycerol
+
inulin
?
raffinose
-
D-sorbitol
?
starch
-
Other carbohydrates: inositol -, xylose +, galactose -, dulcitol -.
Spec. Char.: Can form a capsule or biofilm consisting of teichoic acid and other components (on e.g. implants).Optimal growth temperature: 30-37°C.
Disease:Belongs to the normal flora of the skin, but may occasionally cause opportunistic infections.
Cattle: mastitis och wound infections.
Other animals: wound infections.
Hosts: Different animal species including cattle, dog, horse and humans.
Clinical Picture:
Genome Sequence:
Acc-noStrainSize (bp)Genome
NC_004461 ATCC 12228 2 499 279 1l + 6l 
Två stammar har sekvenserats och de hade 1 eller 6 plasmider.

16S rRNA Seq.:
Acc-noStrainNumber of NTOperonSequence similarity
D83363 ATCC 14990T 1 475 99.87 - 99% 

Taxonomy/phylogeny:
 
About 70 species and subspecies have been described within the genus Staphylococcus. S. epidermidis is closely related to S. aureus.
Comment:S. epidermidis is often found as contaminant of clinical samples. S. epidermidis belongs to the group coagulase negativs staphylococci (CNS).
Updated:2023-03-08

News

The taxonomy of chlamydias

Species within the family Chlamydiaceae were previously divided into two genera Chlamydia and Chlamydophila. However, the differences between these two genera were not that great and many research groups have not accepted this division. Therefore, the genus Chlamydophila has been returned to the genus Chlamydia and this change has now been incorporated in VetBact

Published 2023-03-15. Read more...
New names of bacterial phyla

The taxonomic category phylum was previously not regulated by the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP), but now this has changed and it was decided to revise the names of bacterial phyla. All phyla must be written in italics (which has been done on VetBact also before) and have the ending -ota.

Published 2023-03-01. Read more...

Recently Updated

Recent blog posts

Most recent comment


Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences