Abstract

BERARDINELLI, Elena María  and  LOPARDO, Horacio Ángel. Streptococcus anginosus groupb Part I. Taxonomy, microbiological characteristics and identification. Acta bioquím. clín. latinoam. [online]. 2020, vol.54, n.4, pp.421-436. ISSN 0325-2957.

Streptococci from the Streptococcus anginosus group (SAG), also called “Streptococcus milleri”, have been recognized as belonging to the viridans group (VGS) since the beginning of the 20th century. Their role as human pathogens, however, only began to emerge in the 1970s. This review consists of three parts: the first part will deal with the taxonomic and microbiological aspects and the identification methods of SAGs. The growth of these bacteria is relatively slow; the colonies are small even after 48-72 hours of incubation and most of the strains give off a characteristic caramel odor when they grow on blood agar. Their growth is stimulated in an atmosphere with 5% CO2. Lately, with the recognition of the association of SAGs with undesirable episodes in patients with cystic fibrosis, selective media have been developed to reveal their presence in the airways. Phenotypic and even some genotypic methods lack precision in identifying the three species in the group (Streptococcus anginosus, Streptococcus constellatus, and Streptococcus intermedius) and may even fail to classify at the group level. Among the molecular methods, MALDI-TOF MS cannot be taken as a reference to arrive at subspecies, but it is very efficient to identify at the species level. For some authors, sequencing the sodA gene may be a good option, but the gold standard is multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA).

Keywords : Streptococcus anginosus; Streptococcus constellatus; Streptococcus intermedius; Taxonomy; Culture; Identification.

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