Mycobacterium smegmatis is a non-tuberculous mycobacterium that is usually associated with soft tissue or wound infections in humans. [ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

two new rapidly growing species related to Mycobacterium smegmatis and associated with human wound infections: a cooperative study from the International Working Group on Mycobacterial Taxonomy. Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol., 1999, 49, 1493-1511. [bacterio.net]

It is also rapid, with the detection of M. tuberculosis in sputum specimens within 48 h. [ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

Cytological and transcript analyses reveal fat and lazy persister-like bacilli in tuberculous sputum [Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov’t]. PLoS Med, 5 (4), e75. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0050075. [link.springer.com]

a non-chromogenic, fast-growing strain isolated from sputum. Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol., 67, 3174-3181. Original article in IJSEM Online Mycobacterium elephantis Shojaei et al. 2000, sp. nov. [bacterio.net]

Interestingly, meropenem combined with amoxicillin/clavulanate resulted in early clearance of Mtb from patient sputum ( Diacon et al., 2016 ). In fact, the combination might be key to accelerated killing of Mtb ( Gonzalo and Drobniewski, 2013 ). [elifesciences.org]