Figure 3.

Phylogenetic tree of all the members of the genus Mycobacterium. Strict consensus of the 230 most parsimonious trees using Paup 4.0b10 (heuristic search, gaps = fifth state) [89] from the 1286 aligned nucleotides of the 16S rRNA DNA sequence of 80 species of the genus Mycobacterium with the sequence of the species Gordonia aichiensis as the outgroup. Sequenced genomes are highlighted in yellow. The division between fast and slow-growing species is indicated by a dotted line. Underlined species are considered pathogens [62]. The members of the M. tuberculosis complex and the M. avium complex are indicated. The divisions between the normal helix 18, long helix 18 and extended helix 18 of the 16S rRNA gene sequence are indicated [94,95]. * = M. farcinogenes is a slow growing mycobacterium.