Differentiation of Corynebacterium amycolatum, C. minutissimum, C. striatum and related species by pyrolysis-gas-liquid chromatography with atomic emission detection.

We report here the application of pyrolysis-gas chromatography followed by atomic emission detection (AED) for the characterisation of Corynebacterium amycolatum and related species (i.e., C. striatum, C. minutissimum, C. xerosis and the recently described C. freneyi). This phenotypic method, which analyses the whole chemical composition of bacteria, clearly separates C. amycolatum from other species. Moreover, this C. amycolatum group is subdivided into two distinct subgroups. We cannot differentiate the C. minutissimum strains from those of C. striatum. On the other hand, C. freneyi and C. xerosis are clearly distinct from the other species.