| Cross Index | Listeria |
| SuperSet | Prokaryote, Eubacteria Regular, Nonsporing Gram-Positive Rods |
| Compare | Brochothrix, Carnobacterium, Caryophanon, Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, Kurthia, Lactobacillus, Listeria, Renibacterium salmoninarum |
| Contrast | Archaea |
| Subset |
| Morphology | Listeria |
| CELLULAR |
| Staining | Gram positive are not acid fast |
| Morphology | rods appear as filaments of 6-20 microns in length |
| Motility | motile |
| Specialized structures | do not produce capsules |
| Division |
| COLONIAL |
| Solid surface | In older or rough cultures, The colonies appear bluish gray by normal illumination and a characteristic blue greensheen is produced by obliquely transmitted light |
| Liquid |
| Growth Parameters | Listeria |
| PHYSIOLOGICAL |
| Tropism | |
| Oxygen | facultative anaerobes Fermentative metabolism |
| pH | |
| Temperature | grow well at 35 C The microbe does not survive heating at 60 C for 30 min |
| Requirements | |
| Products | Fermentative metabolism of glucose produces lactate but no gas. Methyl red positive,Voges proskauer negative, citrate not used, indole negative , Esculin and hippurate are hydrolysed, urea,gelatin,casein and milk not hydrolysed. produce acid from glucose but do not produce hydrogen sulfide contains cytochromes |
| Enzymes | catalase positve oxidase negative |
| Unique features |
| ENVIRONMENTAL |
| Habitat | Widely distributed in nature, found in water, mud sewage, vegetation and in the feces of animals and man. |
| Lifestyle | |
| Pathogenicity | Some species are pathogenic for animals and man |
| Distribution |
| Genome | Listeria |
| G+C Mol % |
| Reference | Listeria |
| First citation | Pirie,J.H.H. (1940) The genus Listerella Pirie. Science (Washington) 91:383 |
| The Prokaryotes | p |
| Bergey's Systematatic | p 1235 H.P.R. Seeliger and D. Jones |
| Bergey's Determinative | p 566 |
| References |