Mycobacterium bohemicum

Mycobacterium bohemicum is a species of the phylum Actinobacteria (Gram-positive bacteria with high guanine and cytosine content, one of the dominant phyla of all bacteria), belonging to the genus Mycobacterium.

Mycobacterium bohemicum is a nontuberculous bacterium that has been isolated from human tissue, animals, and the environment. M. bohemicum affects soft tissue in animal cells.[1] Mycobacterium bohemicum was identified in 1998 when isolated from sputum that was produced by a 53-year-old Down's Syndrome patient with tuberculosis[2] M. bohemicum has been reported and documented in 9 patients worldwide.[3] Reports of the bacterium have been recorded from Finland and Austria. In children, M. bohemicum has induced laterocervical and submandibular lymphadenitis.[4] The excision of the subjects lymph nodes along with antimicrobial therapy increased the health of the subjects in less than 12 months.[1]

The lymph nodes of the subjects were minced and stained according to the Ziehl-Neelsen technique.[5] Within 12–17 days a culture was produced that could be analyzed on a molecular level "Richter". M. bohemicum contains combinations of α-, keto-, metoxy-, and dicarboxy-mycolates that are not commonly found in slow-growing bacteria[3] . Other distinct characteristics of M. bohemicum is identifiable by its unique 16S rDNA nucleotide sequence as well as its variation in the ITS sequence region of 16S-23S.[6]