Proteus vulgaris

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Proteus vulgaris
24h old culture
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Bacteria Phylum: Proteobacteria Class: Gamma Proteobacteria Order: Enterobacteriales Family: Enterobacteriaceae Genus: Proteus Species: P. vulgaris
Binomial name
Proteus vulgaris Hauser 1885

Proteus vulgaris is a rod-shaped (bacilli) Gram negative bacterium (a chemoheterotroph) that inhabits the intestinal tracts of animals, but it can also be found in soil, stagnant water, standing water, fecal matter, raw meats, and dust. Also called, "P. vulgaris", it is in the Proteobacteria and considered to be pathogenic. In humans, it can cause many different types of infection including: urinary tract infections and wound infections, and is a common cause of sinus and respiratory infections, especially in South East Asia, which can be extremely hard to eradicate in sinus and respiratory tissues.

A typical sinus and or respiratory infection caused by P. vulgaris can take weeks or even months to eradicate in humans, even using the few antibiotics that the P. vulgaris pathogen is sensitive to. P. vulgaris can be deadly when in the sinus or respiratory tissues, if left untreated or treated with antibiotics that have only an intermediate effect on P. vulgaris.

Notation: Known antibiotics that P. vulgaris is sensitive to:

Ciprofloxacin, Ceftazidime, Netilmicin, Sulbactam or Cefoperazo, Meropenem, Piperacil or Tazobactam, Unasyn.

Antibiotics should be introduced in much higher doses than "normal" when P. vulgaris has infected the sinus or respiratory tissues. I.E.- Ciprofloxacin should be introduced at a level of at least 2000mg per day orally in such a situation, rather than the "standard" 1000mg per day.

According to laboratory conducted fermentation tests, "P. vulgaris" ferments glucose, sucrose, and amygdalin, but does not ferment lactose or mannitol. "P. vulgaris" also tests positive for the Methyl Red (mixed acid fermentation) test and is also an extremely motile organism.

When "P. vulgaris" is tested using the API 20E Identification System [1] test strip for Enterobacteriaceae (made by BIOMERIEUX) [2], it is discovered that it provides a positive result for: sulfur reduction, urease production, tryptophan deaminase production, and indole production, and provides a negative result for the remainder of the tests on the testing strip.

It is referenced in the Analytical Profile Index using the seven-digit code: 0474021

The optimal growing conditions of this organism is in a facultative anaerobic environment with an average temperature of about 23 degrees Celsius .

The term Proteus signifies changeability of form, as personified in the Homeric poems in Proteus, "the old man of the sea," who tends the sealflocks of Poseidon and has the gift of endless transformation. The first use of the term “Proteus” in bacteriological nomenclature was made by Hauser (1885) who described under this term three types of organisms which he isolated from putrefied meat. One of the three species Hauser identified was Proteus vulgaris so this organism has a long history in Microbiology.

Over the past two decades the genus Proteus, and in particular P. vulgaris, has undergone a number of major taxonomic revisions. In 1982, P. vulgaris was separated into three biogroups on the basis of indole production. Biogroup one was indole negative and represented a new species: P. penneri; while biogroup two and three remained together as P. vulgaris.