Use of Enzyme Tests in Characterization and Identification of Aerobic and Facultatively Anaerobic Gram-Positive Cocci

Abstract

SUMMARY The contribution of enzyme tests to the accurate and rapid routine identification of gram-positive cocci is introduced. The current taxonomy of the genera of aerobic and facultatively anaerobic cocci based on genotypic and phenotypic characterization is reviewed. The clinical and economic importance of members of these taxa is briefly summarized. Tables summarizing test schemes and kits available for the identification of staphylococci, enterococci, and streptococci on the basis of general requirements, number of tests, number of taxa, test classes, and completion times are discussed. Enzyme tests included in each scheme are compared on the basis of their synthetic moiety. The current understanding of the activity of enzymes important for classification and identification of the major groups, methods of testing, and relevance to the ease and speed of identification are reviewed. Publications describing the use of different identification kits are listed, and overall identification successes and problems are discussed. The relationships between the results of conventional biochemical and rapid enzyme tests are described and considered. The use of synthetic substrates for the detection of glycosidases and peptidases is reviewed, and the advantages of fluorogenic synthetic moieties are discussed. The relevance of enzyme tests to accurate and meaningful rapid routine identification is discussed.

Enumeration and speciation of enterococci found in marine and intertidal sediments and coastal water in southern California

“…Surprisingly, a high percentage of isolates from sediment (8·2–15·0%) and shoreline water (11·4–25·5%) were non‐ Enterococcus species (Table 3). These isolates, which appeared identical to enterococci on mEI media, included Streptococcaceae and related organisms (Bascomb and Manafi 1998) such as Streptococcus bovis , other Streptococcus spp., Aerococcus spp., as well as species that could not be identified with the methods used.…”

High load of multi-drug resistant nosocomial neonatal pathogens carried by cockroaches in a neonatal intensive care unit at Tikur Anbessa specialized hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

“…was isolated from Mannitol Salt Agar- MSA (OXOID, Basingstoke, UK) and staphylococcus aureus was confirmed by both coagulase and catalase positivity [6,15,16,19,20]. Streptococcus spp .…”

Research of enzymatic activities of fresh juice and water infusions from dry herbs

“…The commercial API ZYM system (bioMèrieux, France) used in this work for determination of enzymes in water solutions of fresh plant juice and water infusion from dry plants is widely applied to study enzymatic activities of different bacterial species, which are often difficult to identify (Citron et al, 1996;Bascomb and Manafi, 1998;De La Higuera et al, 1999;Heroldova et al, 2001;Sakamoto et al, 2002;Samaranayake et al, 2003). Making a phenotype characteristics by means of this test of the examined species through the identification of active enzymes is a precise and simple method.…”