Eikenella glucosivorans sp. nov., isolated from a human throat swab, and emendation of the genus Eikenella to include saccharolytic species
Silvio Hering, Moritz K. Jansson, Michael Buhl
Abstract
A novel species within the genus Eikenella is described, based on the phenotypical, biochemical and genetic characterization of a strain of a facultatively anaerobic, Gram-negative rod-shaped bacterium. Strain S3360 T was isolated from the throat swab of a patient sampled during routine care at a hospital. Phylogenetic analyses (full-length 16S rRNA gene and whole-genome sequences) placed the strain in the genus Eikenella , separate from all recognized species but with the closest relationship to Eikenella longinqua (NML 02-A-017 T ). Eikenella is one of the genera in the HACEK group known to be responsible for rare cases of endocarditis in humans. Until the recent descriptions of Eikenella exigua , Eikenella halliae and Eikenella longinqua , Eikenella corrodens had been the only validly published species in this genus since its description as Bacteroides corrodens in 1958. Unlike these species, strain S3360 T is able to metabolize carbohydrates (glucose). The average nucleotide identities of strain S3360 T with E. longinqua (NML 02-A-017 T ) and E. corrodens (NCTC 10596 T ), the type species of the genus, were 90.5 and 84.7 %, respectively, and the corresponding genome-to-genome distance values were 41.3 and 29.0 %, respectively. The DNA G+C content of strain S3360 T was 58.4 mol%. Based on the phenotypical, biochemical and genetic findings, strain S3360 T is considered to represent a novel species within the genus Eikenella , for which the name Eikenella glucosivorans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is S3360 T (DSM 110714 T =CCOS 1935 T =CCUG 74293 T ). In addition, an emendation of the genus Eikenella is proposed to include species which are saccharolytic.