ABSTRACT
Contents 7.1 Historical Perspectives .................................................................................................... 124 7.2 Genus Characteristics and Species Discriminators ......................................................... 126 7.3 Growth Characteristics In Vitro ..................................................................................... 126 7.4 Nutritional Requirements and Metabolic Characteristics ............................................... 127 7.5 Classification .................................................................................................................. 127
7.5.1 Pyogenic Group .................................................................................................. 134 7.5.2 Anginosus Group .................................................................................................135 7.5.3 Mitis Group ........................................................................................................ 136 7.5.4 Salivarius Group ................................................................................................. 136 7.5.5 Bovis Group .........................................................................................................137 7.5.6 Mutans Group .....................................................................................................137 7.5.7 Ill-Defined Group ................................................................................................138
7.6 Aggressors, Opportunists, and Protectors ........................................................................138 7.6.1 Aggressors ............................................................................................................138 7.6.2 Opportunists .......................................................................................................139 7.6.3 Protectors .............................................................................................................139
References ................................................................................................................................140
7.1 Historical Perspectives “Streptococcus” derives from the Greek streptos-easily twisted like a chain-and kokkos-grain or seed-and the term was first used in 1874 by Billroth as a descriptor for the chain-forming, coccoid-shaped bacteria commonly detected in wounds and discharges from animal bodies and in about one-half of erysipelas cases (Billroth 1874). Later, Pasteur presented to the French Academy of Medicine on March 11, 1879, an account of his microscopic observations of streptococci isolated from the uterus and blood of women with puerperal sepsis and proposed an etiological association (Alouf and Horaud 1997). However, it was Rosenbach in 1884 who first applied the generic name Streptococcus when describing the chain-forming coccus isolated from suppurative lesions in man (Rosenbach 1884). He gave to this bacterium the species designation Streptococcus pyogenes.
