Kingdom Bacteria Class Actinobacteria Family Pseudonocardiaceae Rank Species | Phylum Actinobacteria Order Actinomycetales Genus Amycolatopsis | |
Similar Amycolatopsis, Pseudonocardia, Sphingobium, Saccharopolyspora, Streptomyces griseus | ||
Amycolatopsis rifamycinica is a species of Gram-positive bacteria in the Amycolatopsis genus. It produces the rifamycin antibiotics (e.g. rifamycin SV), which are used to treat mycobacterial diseases such as tuberculosis and leprosy. Amycolatopsis rifamycinica has been renamed several times. When it was first isolated from a French soil sample in 1957, it was identified as Streptomyces mediterranei. In 1969, the bacterium was renamed Nocardia mediterranei because its cell wall was thought to resemble that of Nocardia species. The bacterium was renamed Amycolatopsis mediterranei in 1986 after finding that it is not susceptible to Nocardia phage and has a cell wall that lacks mycolic acid. Finally, in 2004, it was renamed Amycolatopsis rifamycinica based on 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing.