Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2006 Dec;72(12):7602-6.
doi: 10.1128/AEM.00930-06. Epub 2006 Oct 20.

Relationships between Mycobacterium isolates from patients with pulmonary mycobacterial infection and potting soils

Mary Ann De Groote  1 , Norman R Pace, Kayte Fulton, Joseph O Falkinham 3rd
Affiliations

Relationships between Mycobacterium isolates from patients with pulmonary mycobacterial infection and potting soils

Mary Ann De Groote et al. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2006 Dec.

Abstract

High numbers of mycobacteria, including known pathogenic species such as Mycobacterium avium, Mycobacterium intracellulare, and Mycobacterium chelonae, were recovered from aerosols produced by pouring commercial potting soil products and potting soil samples provided by patients with pulmonary mycobacterial infections. The dominant mycobacteria in the soil samples corresponded to the dominant species implicated clinically. Profiles of large restriction fragments obtained by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis demonstrated a closely related pair of M. avium isolates recovered from a patient and from that patient's own potting soil. Thus, potting soils are potential sources of infection by environmental mycobacteria. Use of dust-excluding masks should be considered during potting or other activities that generate aerosol with soil.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIG. 1.
FIG. 1.
(A) Distribution of mycobacterial species from respiratory samples of patients. Isolates from patient sputum or bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. MAC (NOD) is M. avium complex not further identified to the species level. (B) Distribution of mycobacterial species from total soil samples (n = 79) provided by patients.
FIG. 2.
FIG. 2.
Percentages of patients (n = 21) with soil samples that harbor particular species of mycobacteria.
FIG. 3.
FIG. 3.
PFGE profiles of restriction endonuclease digestion fragments of total DNA from the following isolates (for details of the patient and epidemiologically matched potting soil aerosol isolates, see Table S1 in the supplemental material): M. avium (Mav1) strains A002 (lane 1, patient isolate [P]) and A002-4-4-1 (lane 2, soil isolate [S]), M. intracellulare (Min1) isolates A014 (lane 3, patient isolate) and A014-2-5-2 (lane 4, soil isolate), M. avium (Mav2) isolates A019 (lane 5, patient isolate) and A019-3-4-1 (lane 6, soil isolate), and M. intracellulare (Min2) isolates A020 (lane 7, patient isolate) and A0206-4-2 (lane 8, soil isolate).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Andersen, A. A. 1958. New sampler for the collection, sizing, and enumeration of viable airborne particles. J. Bacteriol. 76:471-484. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Arbeit, R. D., A. Slutsky, T. W. Barber, J. N. Maslow, S. Niemczyk, J. O. Falkinham III, G. T. O'Connor, and C. F. von Reyn. 1993. Genetic diversity among strains of Mycobacterium avium causing monoclonal and polyclonal bacteremia in patients with AIDS. J. Infect. Dis. 167:1384-1390. - PubMed
    1. Falkinham, I. J. O. 1996. Epidemiology of infection by nontuberculous mycobacteria. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 9:177-215. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Iivanainen, E. K., P. J. Martikainen, L. Räisänen, and M. L. Katila. 1997. Mycobacteria in boreal coniferous forest soils. FEMS Microbiol. Ecol. 23:325-332.
    1. Katila, M.-L., E. Iivanainen, P. Torkko, J. Kauppinen, P. Màrtikainen, and P. Väänänen. 1995. Isolation of potentially pathogenic mycobacteria in the Finnish environment. Scand. J. Infect. Dis. Suppl. 98:9-11. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms