Taxa
Domain: Bacteria
Kingdom: Eubacteria
Phylum: Actinobacteria
Class: Actinobacteria
Order: Actinomycetales
Family: Mycobacteriaceae
Genus: Mycobacterium
Species: tuberculosis(TB)
Kingdom: Eubacteria
Phylum: Actinobacteria
Class: Actinobacteria
Order: Actinomycetales
Family: Mycobacteriaceae
Genus: Mycobacterium
Species: tuberculosis(TB)
What Does Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Look Like?
- Tuberculosis cells are a clear-ish white color but when they’re stained they're pink.
- Mycobacterium tuberculosis is very small and grows very slow compared.
- The bacteria has a rod-like shape although in complexes thay can appear circular.
Behavior
- The cells of Mycobacterium tuberculosis only affect humans.
- These cells eat whatever the host eats.
- They do not have any prey.
- TB cells do not share a symbiotic relationship to any cell because they can only affect humans and the only organism it affects it hurts.
General Info
- Mycobacterium tuberculosis reproduces at a very slow rate compared to other cells. It reproduces every 15-20 hours.
- It affects about 1.8 billion people every year.
- These cells are obligate aerobes. Which means they need high amounts of oxygen to survive. This is why these cells are found in the upper lung region.
- The name was given to this bacteria after J.L. Schonlein saw that it created tube-like holes in the human lungs, which is why he named it tuberculosis.
Closest Ancestor
- The closest ancestor to Mycobacterium tuberculosis is Mycobacterium bovis.
- The close ancestor was thought to have started in cows. The humans then drank the milk from these cows obtaining the bacteria.
- These humans started getting infected with these new cells. These cells then evolved in the human body.
- These 2 bacteria split about 4000 years ago to create Mycobacterium bovis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.