Biochemical properties of cultivated Mycobacterium lepraemurium.

1. Dehydrogenase activity of whole cell of cultivated M. lepraemurium is accelerated with sodium laurate, but not with the other substrates. 2. Dehydrogenase activity of cell free extract of cultivated M. lepraemurium is accelerated with citrate or malate. 3. There is no acceleration of oxygen consumption corresponding to added substrates in the respiration activity of whole cells of cultivated M. lepraemurium, but endogenous QO2 is 1.7 mul. 4. Cell free extract of cultivated M. lepraemurium shows slight acceleration of oxygen consumption with NADH, but does not with citrate or alpha-ketoglutarate. 5. NADH is not oxidized rapidly with the particle fraction of cultivated M. lepraemurium. 6. Type b1 cytochrome having an absorption peak at a wave length of 561 mmu and type a2 cytochrome having an absorption peak at 625 mmu are detected in an oxidoreductive difference spectrum or particle fraction of cultivated M. lepraemurium, but type c cytochrome having the absorption peak at 550 mmu is not seen. Since the other cultivable acid-fast bacilli always have type c cytochrome, nondetection of type c cytochrome is characteristic for M. lepraemurium. 7. These cytochromes are reduced with NADH. 8. M. lepraemurium produces a red pigment which emits a red fluorescence with ultraviolet light on its 1% Ogawa yolk medium. This phenomenon is a characteristic of M. lepraemurium, M. avium and M. intracellulare.