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The Family Dermatophilaceae

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The Prokaryotes

Abstract

The family Dermatophilaceae embraces Gram-positive, high G+C, facultative anaerobic or strictly aerobic chemoorganotrophic bacteria with a wide range of habitats such as animal and human skin, fish guts, and wastewater treatment reactors. Up to date, it consists of five genera: Dermatophilus, Austwickia, Kineosphaera, Mobilicoccus, and Piscicoccus. Its first member, Dermatophilus congolensis, was isolated as the causative agent of bovine streptotrichosis, at the time named dermatose contagieuse. The disease can be described as an acute or chronic exudative dermatitis, affecting a wide range of animals and man. It has been known with a variety of names throughout time, mostly depending on the host animal, but all of them will hereafter be called under the broader name dermatophilosis. With its complex life cycle, unique morphology, and pathogenicity, D. congolensis has led to significant turmoil in the history of the taxonomic placement of itself and its relatives. Austwickia chelonae, which was originally thought to belong to the genus Dermatophilus, was recently reclassified as a new genus within the Dermatophilaceae family. Kineosphaera limosa was isolated from a deteriorated enhanced biological phosphorus removal reactor, and is able to accumulate polyhydroxyalkanoates. Mobilicoccus pelagius and Piscicoccus intestinalis constitute the latest additions to the family and were both isolated from the intestinal tracts of two species of fish. Thus, it can be concluded that members of the family Dermatophilaceae constitute a phenotypically versatile group.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 3207 Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 205 North Mathews Avenue, 61802, Urbana, IL, USA

    Konstantina Kagia & Wen-Tso Liu

Authors
  1. Konstantina Kagia
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  2. Wen-Tso Liu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Konstantina Kagia .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Eugene Rosenberg

  2. Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Edward F. DeLong

  3. Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education, University of Hawaii, Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Edward F. DeLong

  4. Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Stephen Lory

  5. Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig, Germany

    Erko Stackebrandt

  6. Laboratory of Microbiology, Institute of Biology, Center for Health Sciences, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Ilha do Fundão, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Fabiano Thompson

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Kagia, K., Liu, WT. (2014). The Family Dermatophilaceae . In: Rosenberg, E., DeLong, E.F., Lory, S., Stackebrandt, E., Thompson, F. (eds) The Prokaryotes. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30138-4_177

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