These are some pictures of micrococcus luteus. I learned a few things about the bacteria while I was culturing and taking pictures of it. Micrococcus luteus is a Gram-positive to Gram-variable, nonmotile, tetrad-arranging, pigmented, saprotrophic coccus bacterium in the family Micrococcaceae.[1] It is urease and catalase positive. An obligate aerobe, M. luteus is found in soil, dust, water and air, and as part of the normal microbiota of the mammalian skin. The bacterium also colonizes the human mouth, mucosae, oropharynx and upper respiratory tract.
Micrococcus luteus is generally harmless but can become an opportunistic pathogen in immunocompromised people or those with indwelling catheters.[2] It resists antibiotic treatment by slowing of major metabolic processes and induction of unique genes.[citation needed] Its genome has a high G + C content.
Micrococcus luteus is coagulase negative, bacitracin susceptible, and forms bright yellow colonies on nutrient agar.
Micrococcus luteus has been shown to survive in oligotrophic environments for extended periods of time. It has survived for at least 34,000 to 170,000 years, as assessed by 16S rRNA analysis, and possibly much longer.[3] Its genome was sequenced in 2010 and is one of the smallest genomes of free-living Actinomycetota sequenced to date, comprising a single circular chromosome of 2,501,097 bp.[4]
Domain:
Bacteria
Phylum:
Actinomycetota
Class:
Actinomycetia
Order:
Micrococcales
Family:
Micrococcaceae
Genus:
Micrococcus
Species:
M. luteus
Micrococcus luteus. (2023, July 19). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micrococcus_luteus
