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History

The first recognised species in this genus (Macrococcus caseolyticus) was initially named Micrococcus caseolyticus by Evans in 1916. It was then renamed Staphylococcus caseolyticus by Schleifer et al in 1982. It received its current designation in 1998 by Kloos et al.

Description

Members of the genus Macrococcus are Gram-positive, nonmotile, non-spore-forming cocci that are coagulase negative and catalase positive. They can be distinguished phenotypically from most staphylococci on the basis of their cellular morphology (they are 2.5 – 4.0 times larger in diameter compared to Staphylococcus aureus) and their positive cytochrome c oxidase reaction. Species in this genus are resistant to bacitracin and lysozyme and sensitive to furazolidone. The DNA base content is 38–45 mol% G+C. The cell walls lack teichoic acid. They are usually unencapsulated.

Genome

The first genome of this genus was sequenced in 2009⁴

Evolution

This genus is the closest known relation of the genus Staphylococcus. Within Staphylococcus, the closest relations of Macrococcus appear to be the Staphylococcus sciuri group.

Clinical

This genus is not known to cause human disease.

A methicillin resistance gene has been identified in this genus.⁵ The significance of this discovery is not yet clear.

Etymology

See also: Bacterial taxonomy

The name Macrococcus is a masculine Neo-Latin noun composed of the Greek adjective makros (μάκρος) meaning "large"⁶ and the Neolatin masculine noun coccus intended to mean a coccus shaped bacterium, as it comes from the Greek masculine noun kokkos (κόκκος) meaning "berry",⁷ consequently the noun Macrococcus, means "large coccus".⁸

The etymology of the epithet of the 8 species⁹ contained in the genus are:¹⁰¹¹

• For M. bovicus Kloos et al. 1998, the epithet is the masculine form of bovicus, -a, -um, a Neolatin adjective derived from the Latin noun bos, bovis meaning "cow", given that the type strain was isolated from a cow.
• For M. brunensis Mannerová et al. 2003, the Latin masculine adjective brunensis meaning from Bruna, the Roman name of the city of Brünn in the Czech Republic, where the type strain was isolated.
• M. canis Gobeli Brawand et al. 2017¹²
• For M. carouselicus Kloos et al. 1998, the Neolatin adjective carouselicus meaning "pertaining " to a carousel".
• For M. caseolyticus (Schleifer et al. 1982) Kloos et al. 1998, the epithet is a Neolatin adjective which is a combination of the Latin noun caseus meaning "cheese" and the Neolatin adjective lyticus (from the Greek adjective lutikos (λυτικός)) meaning "able to dissolve", to mean "casein-dissolving".
• For M. equipercicus Kloos et al. 1998, the epithet is a Neolatin adjective, meaning "pertaining to Percy, the horse", composed of the Latin noun equus, -i meaning "horse" and the Neolatinised English proper name "Percy" to Percus, -i, which is the name of the Irish thoroughbred horse from which the species was isolated (In Kloos et al. 1998 the component equus is said to be in the genitive case, but more correctly equi" is the root equ-" plus a joining "-i-" as first word is a Latin word,"c.f."¹³).
• M. hajekii Mannerová et al. 2003 Neo-Latin genitive case noun hajekii, of Hájek, named after Wenceslaus Hajek, a Czech microbiologist.
• M. lamae Mannerová; et al. 2003 Neo-Latin feminine gender genitive case noun lamae, of Lama, the zoological genus name of the llama.

Phylogeny

The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN)¹⁴ and National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).¹⁵

See also

• List of bacterial orders
• List of bacteria genera

External links

• Summary of the genome data [1]

References

1. Beekes, Robert; van Beek, Lucien (2010). Lubotsky, Alexander (ed.). Etymological Dictionary Of Greek. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. p. 733. ISBN 978 90 04 17418 4. 978 90 04 17418 4 ↩

2. κόκκος. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=ko/kkos ↩

3. Kloos, W. E., D. N. Ballard, C. G. George, J. A. Webster, R. J. Hubner, W. Ludwig, K. H. Schleifer, F. Fiedler, and K. Schubert. 1998. Delimiting the genus Staphylococcus through description of Macrococcus caseolyticus gen. nov., comb. nov. and Macrococcus equipercicus sp. nov., and Macrococcus bovicus sp. nov, and Macrococcus carouselicus sp. nov. Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 48:859-877 ↩

4. Baba T, Kuwahara-Arai K, Uchiyama I, Takeuchi F, Ito T, Hiramatsu K. (2009) Complete genome sequence of Macrococcus caseolyticus strain JCSCS5402, [corrected] reflecting the ancestral genome of the human-pathogenic staphylococci. J. Bacteriol. 191(4):1180-1190 ↩

5. Tsubakishita S, Baba K K-A T, and Hiramatsu K (2010) Staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec-Like element in Macrococcus caseolyticus. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 54 (4) 1469-1475 ↩

6. μάκρος. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=ma/kros ↩

7. κόκκος. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=ko/kkos ↩

8. Kloos, W. E., D. N. Ballard, C. G. George, J. A. Webster, R. J. Hubner, W. Ludwig, K. H. Schleifer, F. Fiedler, and K. Schubert. 1998. Delimiting the genus Staphylococcus through description of Macrococcus caseolyticus gen. nov., comb. nov. and Macrococcus equipercicus sp. nov., and Macrococcus bovicus sp. nov, and Macrococcus carouselicus sp. nov. Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 48:859-877 ↩

9. Macrococcus in LPSN; Parte, Aidan C.; Sardà Carbasse, Joaquim; Meier-Kolthoff, Jan P.; Reimer, Lorenz C.; Göker, Markus (1 November 2020). "List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN) moves to the DSMZ". International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 70 (11): 5607–5612. doi:10.1099/ijsem.0.004332. https://lpsn.dsmz.de/m/macrococcus.html ↩

10. A.C. Parte; et al. "Macrococcus". List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN). Retrieved 2025-02-28. https://lpsn.dsmz.de/genus/macrococcus ↩

11. "IJSEM -- Abstracts: Mannerová et al. 53 (5): 1647". Archived from the original on 2004-03-08. https://web.archive.org/web/20040308055522/http://ijs.sgmjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/53/5/1647 ↩

12. Gobeli Brawand, S; Cotting, K; Gómez-Sanz, E; Collaud, A; Thomann, A; Brodard, I; Rodriguez-Campos, S; Strauss, C; Perreten, V (March 2017). "Macrococcus canis sp. nov., a skin bacterium associated with infections in dogs". International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 67 (3): 621–626. doi:10.1099/ijsem.0.001673. PMID 27902286. https://doi.org/10.1099%2Fijsem.0.001673 ↩

13. Help! Latin! How to avoid the most common mistakes while giving Latin names to newly discovered prokaryotes. Microbiología (Sociedad Española de Microbiología), 1996, 12, 473-475. "H.G. Trüper: Help! Latin! How to avoid the most common mistakes while giving Latin names to newly discovered prokaryotes". Archived from the original on 2011-10-07. Retrieved 2011-04-14. https://web.archive.org/web/20111007162154/http://www.bacterio.cict.fr/trueper.html ↩

14. A.C. Parte; et al. "Macrococcus". List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN). Retrieved 2025-02-28. https://lpsn.dsmz.de/genus/macrococcus ↩

15. C.L. Schoch; et al. "Macrococcus". National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) taxonomy database. Retrieved 2025-02-28. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?mode=Tree&id=69965&lvl=3&lin=f&keep=1&srchmode=1&unlock ↩

16. "The LTP". Retrieved 10 December 2024. https://imedea.uib-csic.es/mmg/ltp/#LTP ↩

17. "LTP_all tree in newick format". Retrieved 10 December 2024. https://imedea.uib-csic.es/mmg/ltp/wp-content/uploads/ltp/LTP_all_10_2024.ntree ↩

18. "LTP_10_2024 Release Notes" (PDF). Retrieved 10 December 2024. https://imedea.uib-csic.es/mmg/ltp/wp-content/uploads/ltp/LTP_10_2024_release_notes.pdf ↩

19. "GTDB release 09-RS220". Genome Taxonomy Database. Retrieved 10 May 2024. https://gtdb.ecogenomic.org/about#4%7C ↩

20. "bac120_r220.sp_labels". Genome Taxonomy Database. Retrieved 10 May 2024. https://data.gtdb.ecogenomic.org/releases/release220/220.0/auxillary_files/bac120_r220.sp_labels.tree ↩

21. "Taxon History". Genome Taxonomy Database. Retrieved 10 May 2024. https://gtdb.ecogenomic.org/taxon_history/ ↩

22. Gobeli Brawand, S; Cotting, K; Gómez-Sanz, E; Collaud, A; Thomann, A; Brodard, I; Rodriguez-Campos, S; Strauss, C; Perreten, V (March 2017). "Macrococcus canis sp. nov., a skin bacterium associated with infections in dogs". International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 67 (3): 621–626. doi:10.1099/ijsem.0.001673. PMID 27902286. https://doi.org/10.1099%2Fijsem.0.001673 ↩