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Oral Actinomyces Isolates Forming Red Colonies on Brain Heart Blood Agar Can Be Unambiguously Classified as A. odontolyticus by Macroscopic Examination

Annette Kaetzke,¹ Henrike Körner,^1, Susanne Kneist,² and Klaus Eschrich^1*

Institute of Biochemistry, Medical Faculty, University of Leipzig, D-04103 Leipzig,¹ Department of Preventive Dentistry, Medical Faculty, Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, D-99089 Erfurt, Germany²

Received 23 December 2002/ Returned for modification 9 May 2003/ Accepted 2 June 2003

The accurate classification of oral Actinomyces isolates as one species is difficult. Out of 18 Actinomyces isolates forming red colonies on brain heart blood agar, 12 could be straightforwardly assigned as Actinomyces odontolyticus by biochemical, morphological, and chemotaxonomic characteristics. For the remaining six isolates, the results of the different identification methods were inconsistent. By sequencing a 16S ribosomal DNA fragment by a rapid mass spectrometric method, all isolates could be identified unambiguously as A. odontolyticus. This result proves the importance of red colony pigmentation on brain heart blood agar together with the characteristic cell morphology for unequivocal assignment of oral Actinomyces isolates to the species A. odontolyticus.

Present address: Molecular Oncology Group, Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry, D-82152 Martinsried/Munich, Germany.