A Taxonomic Study of Strains Received as “Mycobacterium” rhodochrous

A taxonomic study was carried out on 20 strains received as “Mycobacterium” rhodochrous . These strains were exceedingly similar to the strains of the genus Gordona recently proposed by the present author. Out of the 20 strains studied, 10 strains, including two strains previously named Rhodococcus rhodochrous , formed one cluster and were considered to belong to a species of the genus Gordona . The species has been named Gordona rhodochroa (Zopf; Overbeck; Gordon et Mihm) Tsukamura comb. nov . Two strains were considered to belong to the species Gordona rubra . One of the two had initially been named Mycobacterium rubropertinctum . It was considered from the facts that the specific epithet for the species should be “rubropertinta” and the name Gordona rubra be changed to Gordona rubropertincta . The other strains seemed to belong to some other species. In conclusion, the species “Mycobacterium” rhodochrous appears to be divided into several species of the genus Gordona .