'Pseudomonas saudiphocaensis' sp. nov., a new bacterial species isolated from currency notes collected during the Hajj pilgrimage in 2012 at Makkah, Saudi Arabia.

We report here the main characteristics of 'Pseudomonas saudiphocaensis' strain 20_BNT (CSUR P1224), a new species of the Pseudomonas genus that was isolated from currency notes collected during the Hajj pilgrimage in 2012 at Makkah, Saudi Arabia.

Paper currency is commonly and routinely passed among individuals, and microbes can be spread on the surface of paper currency [1]. As a part of a wider culturomics study in Saudi Arabia, we isolated a new bacterium, strain 20_BNT, from currency notes collected during the Hajj pilgrimage in 2012 at Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Strain 20_BNT was cultured in 5% sheep’s blood–enriched Columbia agar (bioMérieux, Marcy l’Etoile, France) for 2 days in an aerobic atmosphere at 37°C. On Columbia agar, colonies were yellow-transparent and round, with an average diameter of 1 mm. Growth was observed in aerobic and anaerobic conditions. The strain 20_BNT is a Gram-negative, rod-shaped, motile catalase and oxidase-positive bacterium. Growth was observed in the range of 0 to 2% NaCl, with the optimum being 0.5% NaCl. Cells from fresh colonies grown on agar were examined by electron microscopy. A mean diameter of 0.5 μm and a mean length of 2.2 μm were estimated, as well as a single polar flagellum per cell. No identification was obtained for the strain 20_BNT using our matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) screening on a MicroFlex spectrometer (Bruker Daltonics, Bremen, Germany) [2].

The complete 16S rRNA gene was sequenced using fD1-rP2 primers as previously described and using a 3130-XL sequencer (Applied Biosciences, Saint Aubin, France) [3]. Strain 20_BNT exhibited a 98.3% sequence similarity with Pseudomonas stutzeri (NR103934.1), the phylogenetically closest species with standing in nomenclature (Fig. 1). Consequently it putatively classifies the strain 20_BNT as a new member of the genus Pseudomonas within the family Pseudomonadaceae in the phylum Proteobacteria. The genus Pseudomonas was first created in 1894 by Migula, and an emended description of the genus Pseudomonas was proposed by Yang et al. in 2013 [4]. To date more than 200 species have been described (http://www.bacterio.cict.fr/c/pseudomonas.html). Members of the genus Pseudomonas are mostly environmental bacteria widely distributed in soil, water and air [5].

FIG. 1

Phylogenetic tree highlighting position of ‘Pseudomonas saudiphocaensis’ relative to other phylogenetically closest members of Pseudomonas genus. Numbers at nodes are percentages of bootstrap values obtained by repeating analysis 500 times to generate majority consensus tree. Only values >95% are displayed. Scale bar represents 0.5% nucleotide sequence divergence.

Strain 20_BNT exhibited a 16S rRNA gene sequence divergence >1.3% with P. stutzeri, the closest related species with standing in nomenclature, which classifies it as a new representative of the Pseudomonas genus isolated from currency notes collected during the Hajj pilgrimage in 2012 at Makkah. As a result, we propose the creation of ‘Pseudomonas saudiphocaensis’ sp. nov., and strain 20_BN as the type strain.

MALDI-TOF MS spectrum

The MALDI-TOF MS spectrum of 20_BNT is available online (http://www.mediterranee-infection.com/article.php?laref=256&titre=urms-database).

Nucleotide sequence accession number

The 16S rRNA gene sequence of the strain 20_BNT was deposited in GenBank under accession number LK021121.

Deposit in a culture collection

Strain 20_BNT was deposited in the Collection de Souches de l’Unité des Rickettsies (CSUR, WDCM 875) under number P1224.