Mycobacteroides abscessus
species of bacterium
Mycobacteroides abscessus (formerly Mycobacterium abscessus) is a species of rapidly growing, multidrug-resistant, nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) that is a common soil and water contaminant. Although M. abscessus most commonly causes chronic lung infection and skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI), it can also cause infection in almost all human organs, mostly in patients with suppressed immune systems. Amongst NTM species responsible for disease, infection caused by M. abscessus complex are more difficult to treat due to antimicrobial drug resistance.
Description
Mycobacteroides abscessus cells are Gram-positive, nonmotile, acid-fast rods about 1.0–2.5 μm long by 0.5 μm wide. They may form colonies on Löwenstein–Jensen medium that appear smooth or rough, white or greyish, and nonphotochromogenic.
Etymology
Abscessus is named for abscesses. It is a Latin word derived from ab- ("away") + cedere ("to go") because it was the ancient medical notion that a manifestation of the four humors was for pus to leave the body. M. abscessus was first isolated from gluteal abscesses in a 62-year-old patient who had injured her knee as a child and had a disseminated infection 48 years later. The species M. bolletii, which was first described in 2006, is named after the late eminent French microbiologist and taxonomist Claude Bollet.
Physiology
M. abscessus shows growth at 28 °C and 37 °C after 7 days, but not at 43 °C. It may grow on MacConkey agar at 28 °C and even 37 °C.
It shows tolerance to saline media (5% NaCl) and 500 mg/L hydroxylamine (Ogawa egg medium) and 0.2% picrate (Sauton agar medium).
“Mycobacteroides abscessus” enters the record as species of bacterium. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Mycobacteroides, abscessus and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Mycobacteroides abscessus” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Mycobacteroides, abscessus and species provides the most credible route into that argument.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6946978. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2006.
Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mycobacteroides abscessus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.