Corynebacterium

Corynebacterium (kôr"u-nē-bak-tēr'ē-um, ku-rin'u-) is a genus of Gram-positive, aerobic, rod-shaped bacteria. They are widely distributed in nature and are mostly innocuous. Some are useful in industrial settings such as C. glutamicum. Others can cause human disease, including most notably diphtheria, which is caused by C. diphtheriae.

Taxonomy

The genus Corynebacterium was created by Lehmann and Neumann in 1896 as a taxonomic group to contain the bacterial rods responsible for causing diphtheria. The genus was defined based on morphological characteristics. Based on studies of 16S-rRNA, they have been grouped into the subdivision of Gram-positive eubacteria with high G:C content, with close phylogenetic relationship to Arthrobacter, Mycobacterium, Nocardia, and Streptomyces. The term comes from the Greek κορωνη, corönë ("knotted rod") and βακτηριον, bacterion ("rod"). The term "diphtheroids" is used to represent corynebacteria that are nonpathogenic; for example, C. diphtheriae would be excluded (reference?). The term diphtheroid comes from Greek διφθερα, diphthera- prepared hide, leather.