Gordonia consists of at least 36 species, 9 known to cause human disease.29
Gordonia was once thought of as an irrelevant coryneform bacteria. Note that this organism tends to look like diphtheroids on the Gram stain.
Gordonia has been implicated in endocarditis and venous catheters.30 Systemic disease, such as bacteremia, is possible, associated with implantable subcutaneous central venous catheters. Most cases are opportunistic in nature.
Table 4. Characteristics of Gordonia species.
| Characteristics | Comments |
| Appearance on Gram stain | Gram-positive or gram-variable short rods or cocci; thin, beaded coccobacilli (diphtheroid-like); nonbranching |
| Appearance on modified acid-fast stain (MAS) | Usually weakly acid-fast (red) |
| Most often associated with clinical disease30 | G. aichiensis, G. bronchialis, G. effusa, G. otitidis, G. polyisoprenivorans, G. rubripertincta, G. sputi, G. terrae |
| Colonial growth29 | Non-hemolytic; no aerial hyphae; colonies are round, slimy, and smooth to rough and irregular; may be dry and wrinkled; beige, brown, pink, or orange color, sometimes salmon or red if on chocolate agar |
| Phenotypic characterization29 | - Lysozyme resistance negative
- Urea hydrolysis positive
- Nitrate reduction positive
- Oxidative carbohydrate metabolism
|
| Temperature of optimal growth | Growth at 45°C after 3 days
|
29. National Health Service. (2016). UK standards for microbiology investigations: Identification of aerobic actinomycetes. The Royal College of Pathologists. https://www.rcpath.org/static/ce08d742-b58e-4e8d-986c43a75ac367c3/uk-smi-id-10i2-2-identification-of-aerobic-actinomycetes-october-2016-pdf.pdf30. Lesens, O., Hansmann, Y., Riegel, P., Heller, R., Benaissa-Djellouli, M., Martinot, M., Petit, H., & Christmann, D. (2000). Bacteremia and endocarditis caused by a Gordonia species in a patient with a central venous catheter. Emerging infectious diseases, 6(4), 382–385. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid0604.000410
