Micrococcus

Micrococcus
Micrococcus mucilaginosis
Scientific classification
Domain:	Bacteria
Phylum:	Actinomycetota
Class:	Actinomycetia
Order:	Micrococcales
Family:	Micrococcaceae
Genus:	Micrococcus Cohn 1872
Type species
Micrococcus luteus (Schroeter 1872) Cohn 1872 (Approved Lists 1980)
Species
M. aloeverae Prakash et al. 2014 M. antarcticus Liu et al. 2000 M. cohnii Rieser et al. 2013 M. endophyticus Chen et al. 2009 M. flavus Liu et al. 2007 M. luteus (Schroeter 1872) Cohn 1872 (Approved Lists 1980) M. lylae Kloos et al. 1974 (Approved Lists 1980) M. terreus Zhang et al. 2010 M. yunnanensis Zhao et al. 2009

Micrococcus (mi’ krō kŏk’ Əs) is a genus of bacteria in the Micrococcaceae family. Micrococcus occurs in a wide range of environments, including water, dust, and soil. Micrococci have Gram-positive spherical cells ranging from about 0.5 to 3 micrometers in diameter and typically appear in tetrads. They are catalase positive, oxidase positive, indole negative and citrate negative. Micrococcus has a substantial cell wall, which may comprise as much as 50% of the cell mass. The genome of Micrococcus is rich in guanine and cytosine (GC), typically exhibiting 65 to 75% GC-content. Micrococci often carry plasmids (ranging from 1 to 100 MDa in size) that provide the organism with useful traits.

Some species of Micrococcus, such as M. luteus (yellow) and M. roseus (red) produce yellow or pink colonies when grown on mannitol salt agar. Isolates of M. luteus have been found to overproduce riboflavin when grown on toxic organic pollutants like pyridine.^[1]