Characterization of a New Ezakiella Isolated from the Human Vagina: Genome Sequence and Description of Ezakiella massiliensis sp. nov.

The study of the vaginal microbiota using the "culturomics concept" allowed us to isolate, from the vaginal swab of an asymptomatic 20-year-old woman who had sexual relations with another woman with bacterial vaginosis, an unknown Gram-positive anaerobic coccus-shaped bacterium that was designated strain Marseille-P2951T and characterized using taxono-genomics. Strain Marseille-P2951T is non-motile and non-spore forming and exhibits catalase and oxidase activities. Its 16S rRNA gene-based identification showed 98.5% identity with Ezakiella peruensis, the phylogenetically closest species. The major fatty acids are C18:1n9 (58%) and C16:0 (22%). With a 1,741,785 bp length, the G+C content of the genome is 36.69%. Of a total of 1657 genes, 1606 are protein-coding genes and 51 RNAs. Also, 1123 genes are assigned a putative function and 127 are ORFans. Phenotypic, phylogenetic, and genomics analyses revealed that strain Marseille-P2951T (=CSUR P2951 =DSM 103122) is distinct and represents a new species of the genus Ezakiella, for which the name Ezakiella massiliensis sp. nov. is proposed.