Nocardia

A genus of aerobic actinomycetes (family Nocardiaceae, order Actinomycetales), higher bacteria, containing weakly acid-fast, slender rods or filaments, frequently swollen and occasionally branched, forming a mycelium. Coccus or bacillary forms are produced by these organisms, which are mainly saprophytic but may be a cause of mycetoma or nocardiosis. [E. Nocard]

- Nocardia asteroides a species of aerobic, Gram-positive, partially acid-fast, branching organisms causing nocardiosis and possibly mycetoma in humans.

- Nocardia brasiliensis a bacterial species that closely resembles Nocardia asteroides and is a cause of mycetoma and nocardiosis in humans.

- Nocardia caviae former name for Nocardia otitidiscaviarum.

- Nocardia farcinica a species causing bovine farcy; it is the type species of the genus Nocardia.

- Nocardia gibsonii SYN: Streptomyces gibsonii.

- Nocardia lurida former name for Amycolatopsis orientalis lurida.

- Nocardia madurae former name for Actinomadura madurae.

- Nocardia mediterranei a bacterial species that produces rifamycin.

- Nocardia nova a bacterial species commonly recovered from human infections.

- Nocardia orientalis a bacterial species that produces vancomycin.

- Nocardia otitidiscaviarum a higher bacteria (formerly Nocardia caviae) living in soil and one of the causes of nocardiosis and actinomycetoma.

- Nocardia transvalensis an aerobic actinomycete; a cause of nocardiosis.

* * *

no·car·dia nō-'kärd-ē-ə n

1) cap a genus of aerobic actinomycetous bacteria that form limited mycelia which tend to break up into rod-shaped cells and occas. form spores by fragmentation but develop neither conidia nor endospores and that include various pathogens as well as some soil-dwelling saprophytes

2) any bacterium of the genus Nocardia

no·car·di·al -əl adj

No·card nȯ-kär Edmond-Isidore-Étienne (1850-1903)

French veterinarian and biologist. Nocard was an instructor at a veterinary school near Paris and later became its director. As an assistant to Pasteur, he worked on communicable diseases in mammals. In 1885 he described the organism causing pseudotuberculosis in sheep, cattle, and horses. He developed a method for the early diagnosis of glanders in horses, and in 1888 he published a description of bovine glanders. The genus of fungi now known as Nocardia was named in his honor because the first species to be described was isolated by Nocard from glanders in cattle.

* * *

n.

a genus of rodlike or filamentous Gram-positive nonmotile bacteria found in the soil. As cultures age, filaments form branches, but these soon break up into rodlike or spherical cells. Three or more spores may form in each cell; these germinate to form filaments. Some species are pathogenic: N. asteroides causes nocardiosis and N. madurae is associated with the disease Madura foot.

* * *

No·car·dia (no-kahrґde-ə) [Edmond Isidore Etienne Nocard, French veterinarian, 1850–1903] a large genus of bacteria of the family Nocardiaceae, consisting mainly of soil saprophytes; a few are pathogenic. Organisms are gram-positive and aerobic, with branching filaments that break into bacillary or coccal forms, and produce chains of spores by simple fragmentation of hyphal branches. The type species is N. asteroiґdes.