Leptospira_alstonii
Leptospira alstonii
Mobile spirochete
Leptospira alstonii is a gram negative, mobile, spirochete.[1] It is flexible, helical, and motile by means of two periplasmic flagella (axial fibrils). It is obligately aerobic and oxidase positive. It was named after J. M. Alston, a British microbiologist who made significant contributions to the study of Leptospirosis.[2] It is one of nine human or animal pathogenic species of Leptospira.[3] It was originally isolated from material submitted to the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Iowa State University during an outbreak of swine abortion in 1983.[4] It has been isolated and stored in liquid nitrogen or Ellinghausen-McCullough-Johnson-Harris medium.[5] It also has been isolated in China from a frog. The strain is also available from culture collections of the WHO collaborating centers. Lipase is not produced by this species. NaCl is not required for growth. Growth is inhibited by 8-azaguanine at 225 µg/mL or 2,6-diaminopurine (10 µg/mL) and copper sulfate. It contains serovars from the serogroup ranarum. DNA G+C content is 39±8 mol%.[2]