Mycobacterium chelonae-abscessus complex associated with sinopulmonary disease, Northeastern USA.

Members of the Mycobacterium chelonae-abscessus complex represent Mycobacterium species that cause invasive infections in immunocompetent and immunocompromised hosts. We report the detection of a new pathogen that had been misidentified as M. chelonae with an atypical antimicrobial drug susceptibility profile.

Nocardia niwae sp. nov., isolated from human pulmonary sources.

Members of the genus Nocardia are responsible for cutaneous, pulmonary and disseminated human infections. From 2003 to 2008, four nocardioform strains (W8027, W8681, W9071 and W9241(T)) were isolated from patients in the state of Florida, USA. Ribosomal gene sequencing analysis suggested that a novel species of the genus Nocardia had been isolated.

Evaluation of five commercial nucleic acid extraction kits for their ability to inactivate Bacillus anthracis spores and comparison of DNA yields from spores and spiked environmental samples.

This study evaluated five commercial extraction kits for their ability to recover DNA from Bacillus anthracis spores and spiked environmental samples. The kits evaluated represent the major types of methodologies which are commercially available for DNA or total nucleic acid extraction, and included the ChargeSwitch gDNA Mini Bacteria Kit, NucliSens Isolation Kit, Puregene Genomic DNA Purification Kit, QIAamp DNA Blood Mini Kit, and the UltraClean Microbial DNA Isolation Kit. Extraction methods were performed using the spores of eight virulent strains of B.