Environmental mycobacteria are emerging pathogens causing opportunistic infections in humans and animals. The health impacts of human-mycobacterial interactions are complex and likely much broader than currently recognized. Environmental mycobacteria preferentially survive chlorination in municipal water, using it as a vector to infect humans. Widespread chlorination of water has likely selecte...

Thirty faecal specimens from 22 patients with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome were examined by microscopy after Ziehl-Neelsen staining and by culture after decontamination with sodium hydroxide. Thirteen specimens (from 11 patients) were positive for Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare-scrofulaceum on culture, and only five of these on Ziehl-Neelsen staining. Five of the 11 patients had ...

The specific oligosaccharide units of the C-mycosidic glycopeptidolipid antigens from serovarieties in the Mycobacterium avium-Mycobacterium intracellulare-Mycobacterium scrofulaceum complex were liberated as oligosaccharide alditols by treatment of the glycopeptidolipids with alkaline borohydride. The complete structures of the oligosaccharide alditols have been derived from their ‘H-NMR spect...

Plasmid DNA was isolated, and profiles of a variety of clinical and environmental isolates of Mycobacterium avium, Mycobacterium intracellulare, and Mycobacterium scrofulaceum (MAIS) were compared to determine whether plasmid DNA content would be useful as an epidemiological marker for these environmental pathogens. Since plasmids are common in clinical isolates and are stable during culture an...

Two-dimensional immunoelectrophoresis (2D-IEP), in which a complex of antigens is subjected to electrophoresis first through an agarose matrix in one direction and secondly through an antiserum-agarose matrix at right angles to the first direction, was evaluated as a tool for analysis of mycobacterial antigens. Cell extracts from four species of mycobacteria, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (four st...

The most superficial cell wall layer present in smooth-colony-forming mycobacteria was isolated from serovar 20 of the Mycobacterium avium-Mycobacterium intracellulare-Mycobacterium scrofulaceum (MAIS) serocomplex and examined chemically and by electron microscopy. Most (70 to 80%) of the fibrillar material consisted of an array of serologically active, acetylated C-myosidic peptidoglycoplipids...