Explore the recorded discovery and history of Cutibacterium acnes, with source links and stated limits.
Rozas and colleagues describe C. acnes as the most abundant bacterium living in human, healthy and sebum-rich skin sites such as the face and the back, and as a commensal bacterium of human skin. It is a Gram-positive rod that is aerotolerant anaerobic and does not produce spores. It secretes a triacylglycerol lipase, GehA, to metabolise sebum, and predominantly produces propionic acid — the origin of its former genus name Propionibacterium — which contributes to maintaining the acidic layer on the skin’s surface. The species is diverse at subspecies and subtype level, with phylogenetic groups IA1, IA2, IB, IC, II and III. The review reports that loss of C. acnes relative abundance and clonal diversity is frequently associated with skin disorders including acne, atopic dermatitis, rosacea and psoriasis.
LPSN records the basonym “Bacillus acnes” Gilchrist 1900. The epithet comes from the Greek akmê, a point, inaccurately transliterated as acne — so the name records the skin condition the organism was found in rather than a property of the cell or a claim about causation.
LPSN records Cutibacterium acnes (Gilchrist 1900) Scholz and Kilian 2016, validly published in a taxonomic reclassification of the propionibacteria. The former name Propionibacterium acnes remains widely used in older literature and reflects the organism’s propionic acid production. Type strain ATCC 6919 / DSM 1897 / NCTC 737.
This profile describes a commensal bacterium of human skin. There is no first human case to identify, and no infection is attributed to this organism here.
Source check: 2026-09-20. Educational content; independent scientific review remains pending.