ABSTRACT
Bacteria in the genus Granulicatella are gram-positive, catalase-negative, facultative anaerobic cocci. Species in the genus can cause opportunistic infections in immunocompromised patients and are infrequently isolated from clinical laboratories.1 The genera Abiotrophia and Granulicatella have been proposed to accommodate microorganisms previously known as nutritionally variant streptococci or satelliting streptococci.1-3 By chromosomal DNA-DNA hybridizations, Bouvet et al.4 demonstrated that nutritionally variant streptococci were really members of two novel streptococcal species, Streptoccoccus defectivus and Streptoccoccus adjacens. Based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence, Kawamura et al.3 transferred Streptoccoccus defectivus and Streptoccoccus adjacens, respectfully, to two new species, Abiotrophia defectiva and Abiotrophia adiacens. A third species, Abiotrophia elegans, a possible pathogen in patients with endocarditis, was described in 1998 by Roggenkamp et al.5 In 2000, Collins and Lawson2 proposed a new genus, Granulicatella, with Granulicatella adiacens and Granulicatella elegans encompassing strains formerly recognized as Abiotrophia adiacens and Abiotrophia elegans, respectfully. Abiotrophia defectiva remains as the sole species in Abiotrophia.2 A third species in Granulicatella is Granulicatella balaenopterae; however, there was no report of human infection caused by this microorganism.
