Mycolicibacterium baixiangningiae sp. nov. and Mycolicibacterium mengxianglii sp. nov., two new rapidly growing mycobacterial species
Yanpeng Cheng, Wenjing Lei, Xiaoxia Wang, Zhi Tian, Haican Liu, H. J. Yang, Shan Lu, Xin‐He Lai, Ji Pu, Ying Huang, Sihui Zhang, Caixin Yang, Xingxing Lian, Yibo Bai, Kanglin Wan, Suping Wang, Jianguo Xu
Abstract
Four bacterial strains (LJ126 T /S18 and Z-34 T /S20) recovered from faecal samples of Tibetan antelopes on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau of China were analysed using a polyphasic approach. All four isolates were aerobic, short rod-shaped, non-motile, Gram-stain-positive, acid-fast and fast-growing. Phylogenetic analyses based upon 16S rRNA and whole-genome sequences showed that the two pair of strains formed two distinct branches within the evolutionary radiation of the genus Mycolicibacterium . Strains LJ126 T /S18 and Z-34 T /S20 were most closely related to Mycolicibacterium austroafricanum CCUG 37667 T , Mycobacterium aurum NCTC 10437 T , Mycobacterium pyrenivorans DSM 44605 T , Mycobacterium monacense JCM 15658 T , Mycolicibacterium sarraceniae JCM 30395 T , Mycolicibacterium tokaiense JCM 6373 T and Mycobacterium murale JCM 13392 T , but readily distinguished from the known species by a combination of chemotaxonomic and phenotypic features and by low average nucleotide identity values (74.4–84.9 %). Consequently, the two strain pairs are considered to represent different novel species of Mycolicibacterium for which the names Mycolicibacterium baixiangningiae sp. nov. and Mycolicibacterium mengxianglii sp. nov. are proposed, with LJ126 T (=CGMCC 1.1992 T =KCTC 49535 T ) and Z-34 T (=CGMCC 1.1993 T =DSM 106172 T ) as the respective type strains.