Separation of Mycobacterium gadium from other rapidly growing mycobacteria on the basis of DNA homology and restriction endonuclease analysis.

DNA was isolated from Mycobacterium gadium with high purity. Its G + C content was between 64 and 67 mol%. The homology of M. gadium DNA with DNA from three other rapidly growing mycobacteria was less than 22%, which indicates that M. gadium is a discrete genomic species. Analysis of the DNAs with restriction endonucleases supported this finding.