Brevibacterium linens

{{Short description|Species of bacterium}}

{{Italic title}}

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| image = Romadur-Käse.jpg

| image_caption = German Romadur cheese, with Brevibacterium linens causing "red smear" on its surface

| taxon = Brevibacterium linens

| authority = (Wolff 1910) Breed 1953 (Approved Lists 1980){{cite journal | author = Breed RS. | title = The Brevibacteriaceae fam. nov. of order Eubacteriales | journal = Riassunti delle Communicazioni, VI Congresso Internazionale Microbiologia Roma [Proceedings of the 6th International Congress of Microbiology, Rome] | year = 1953 | volume = 1 | pages = 10–15}}

| type_strain = ATCC 9172{{cite web|vauthors=Euzéby JP, Parte AC |url=https://lpsn.dsmz.de/species/brevibacterium-linens |title=Brevibacterium linens |access-date=May 16, 2022 |publisher=List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN)}}
CIP 101125
DSM 20425
HAMBI 2038
IFO 12142
JCM 1327
NBRC 12142
NRRL B-4210
VKM Ac-2112

| synonyms = * "Bacterium linens" Wolff 1910

| synonyms_ref =

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Brevibacterium linens is a gram-positive, rod-shaped bacterium. It is the type species of the family Brevibacteriaceae.{{Cite journal|title=Approved Lists of Bacterial Names|journal=International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology |author=V. B. D. Skerman |author2=Vicki Mcgowan |author3=P. H. A. Sneath |date=1 January 1980|volume=30 |number=7038 |pages= 225–420|doi=10.1099/00207713-30-1-225|doi-access=free}}

Brevibacterium linens is ubiquitously present on the human skin, where it causes foot odor. The familiar odor is due to sulfur-containing compounds known as S-methyl thioesters. The same bacterium is employed to ferment several washed-rind and smear-ripened cheeses, such as Munster, Limburger, Tilsit cheese, Port-Salut, Raclette, Livarot, Pont l'Eveque, Époisses, Wisconsin Brick, Năsal, and Pálpusztai. It is also used in the production of blue cheese, in addition to the mold Penicillium roqueforti. Its aroma also attracts mosquitoes.{{Cite journal |author=Bernard Dixon |date=27 April 1996 |title=Cheese, toes, and mosquitoes |url=http://www.bmj.com/content/312/7038/1105.1.full |journal=British Medical Journal |volume=312 |page=1105 |doi=10.1136/bmj.312.7038.1105 |s2cid=72609132 |number=7038|url-access=subscription }}

The first comprehensive proteomic reference map of B. linens was published in 2013.{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.jprot.2013.02.029 | pmid=23507220 | volume=83 | title=Charting the cellular and extracellular proteome analysis of Brevibacterium linens DSM 20158 with unsequenced genome by mass spectrometry-driven sequence similarity searches | year=2013 | journal=Journal of Proteomics | pages=99–118 | last1 = Shabbiri | first1 = Khadija | last2 = Botting | first2 = Catherine H. | last3 = Adnan | first3 = Ahmad | last4 = Fuszard | first4 = Matthew}}