Description of Acinetobacter ihumii sp. nov., Microbacterium ihumii sp. nov., and Gulosibacter massiliensis sp. nov., three new bacteria isolated from human blood.

Blood is precious tissue that is normally sterile. With the aim of diagnosing the cause of bacteremia, three bacterial strains were isolated from three different individuals. Strains Marseille-P7157T and Marseille-Q2854T are Gram-stain positive, non-spore-forming rod-shaped bacteria, while strain Marseille-P8049T is a Gram-stain negative, motile, non-spore-forming and rod-shaped bacterium. The major fatty acids found (>30%) were hexadecanoic acid for strain Marseille-P8049T and 12-methyl tetradecanoic acid for both strains Marseille-P7157T and Marseille-P2854T. The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis shows that strains Marseille-P8049 and Marseille-Q2854T have sequence similarity of 96.8%, 99.04%, and 98.3% with Acinetobacter ursingii strain LUH3792 (NR_025392.1), Gulosibacter faecalis strain B187 (NR_041812.1), and Schaalia canis strain CCUG 41706 (NR_025366.1), respectively. In addition, strains Marseille-Q2854T, Marseille-P8049T and Marseille-P7157T shared with their closely related species cited above the following DDH values: 19.5%, 24.4%, and 20.2%, respectively. Based on these phenotypic and genomic findings, we consider that strains Marseille-P8049T (= CSUR P8049 = CECT 30350), Marseille-P2854T ( = CSUR Q2854 = CECT 30120) and Marseille-P7157T ( = CSUR P7157 = CECT 30048) are new bacterial species, for which the names Acinetobacter ihumii sp. nov., Microbacterium ihumii sp. nov., and Gulosibacter massiliensis sp. nov., are proposed.

Introduction

Blood is a transport fluid distributed by the heart to all parts of the body, from where it is returned to the heart to repeat the process (Bill 1975, Rosell and Belfrage 1979). Blood is normally sterile. The presence of bacteria in the blood indicates bacteremia. In an effort to establish the etiological diagnosis of bacteremia, three new species belonging to the genera Acinetobacter, Gulosibacter, and Microbacterium were isolated.

Members of the genus Acinetobacter are non-fastidious Gram-stain negative coccobacilli belonging to the phylum Pseudomonadota (Oren and Garrity 2021). Acinetobacter was first described from soil on a calcium acetate-mineral medium as Micrococcus calcoaceticus (Beijerinck 1910), before becoming known as Acinetobacter in the 1950s (Brisou and Prevot 1954, Baumann et al. 1968). The natural habitats of Acinetobacter are soil and water. In humans, the genus Acinetobacter is described as a serious cause of nosocomial infections (Bergogne-Bérézin et al. 1996, Wolff 1996).

The genus Microbacterium is non-fastidious Gram-stain positive, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming bacterium belonging to the phylum Actinomycetota (Oren and Garrity 2022). The genus Microbacterium was proposed in 1919 (Orla-Jensen 1919), and first described in 1983 (Collins et al. 1983). In 1998, the genus was reclassified with the unification of the genera Microbacterium and Aureobacterium (Takeuchi and Hatano 1998). Members of the genus Microbacterium have been isolated from a wide range of specimens, including human clinical samples.

The genus Gulosibacter belongs to the phylum Actinomycetota (Oren and Garrity 2022), the class Actinomycetia, the order Micrococcales as well as the family Microbacteriaceae. Members of this genus are Gram-stain positive, short rod-shaped, non-spore-forming, non-motile, aerobic, catalase-positive, and oxidase-positive bacteria. It was first described in 2004 (Manaia et al. 2004). Currently, the genus Gulosibacter contains six species validly published (Parte et al. 2020).

Herein, we report three strains: Marseille-Q2854T, Marseille-P8049T, and Marseille-P7157T, isolated from blood samples of patients diagnosed in the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire (IHU) Méditerranée Infection. We use a taxonogenomics approach (Ramasamy et al. 2014), which combines morphological, biochemical, phenotypic, and genomic features of the three novel species described here.

Materials and methods

Isolation and growth conditions

Three unidentified strains were isolated from blood culture samples received in our diagnostic laboratory. Strain Marseille-P8049 was isolated from a 57-year-old man with mixed cirrhosis which is aggravated by infection of the right hydrothorax. He is awaiting a liver transplant. Strain Marseille-P7157 was obtained from an external blood culture taken from a 70-year-old man. Finally, strain Marseille-Q2854 is isolated from an 85-year-old woman who came to the emergency room for abdominal pain and urinary tract infection.

The optimal growth conditions were determined for each strain. Thus, the temperature (room temperature, 28, 37, 45, and 56°C), the atmosphere (aerobic, anaerobic, and microaerophilic) and the incubation time (24, 48, and 72 h) were varied. About 12 bacterial colonies of each strain were tested using MALDI-TOF MS, as previously described (Seng et al. 2009). The specific generated spectra were analyzed and implemented in the local database (https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/urms-data-base/).

Phenotypic and morphological characteristics

Carbohydrate fermentation and the presence of enzymatic activities for these three strains were studied using the API 50CH and ZYM strips respectively, following the manufacturer's indications. Spore-formation was determined using a suspension of the pure species heated at 80°C for 20 min and then 50 µL of the suspension was inoculated on COS plates, and incubated in the optimal growth condition. Growth indicates spore-forming ability. Additionally 10 µL of the suspension was observed by scanning electron microscope SU5000 (Hitachi group, Tokyo, Japan) for spore formation.

The optical microscope DM1000 (Leica Microsystems) was used to determine the Gram stain and the motility or not of each strain. Bacterial cell morphology was determined by the scanning electron microscope SU5000. Oxidase and catalase tests were done following standard procedures (Mayrer 1974). Salt tolerance was evaluated at varied concentrations of NaCl (50, 75, 100, and 150 g/L) on Columbia agar (COS, bioMérieux, Marcy l'Etoile, France). The growth of these strains was also tested at different pH (6, 6.5, 7, 7.5, and 8). Cellular fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) analysis was performed using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry as previously described (Dione et al. 2016). ETEST® strips (bioMérieux) were used to determine the minimal inhibitory concentration to selected antibiotics in optimal growth conditions according to the recommendations of the European committee on antimicrobial susceptibility testing (EUCAST) (https://www.eucast.org/).

Genome characterization

Genomic DNA (gDNA) extraction of the strains Marseille-Q2854T, Marseille-P8049T and Marseille-P7157T was performed as previously described (Lo et al. 2022). The assembly was done with a pipeline grouping different software (Velvet (Zerbino and Birney 2008), Soap Denovo (Luo et al. 2012) and Spades (Bankevich et al. 2012)) and different criteria (number of scaffolds, N50, number of N) were selected in order to create the best assembly. GapCloser software (Xu et al. 2019) was used to close gaps within genomes. Annotation of genomes was done with Prokka version 1.14.6 (Seemann 2014). To assess the genomic characteristics of the studied bacteria, average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA-DNA Hybridization (dDDH) were calculated using OrthoANI software (Lee et al. 2016) and the GGDC website (http://ggdc.dsmz.de), respectively.

Results

Strain identification and phylogenetic analysis

Strains Marseille-Q2854T, Marseille-P8049T and Marseille-P7157T were isolated on Columbia agar with 5% sheep blood at 37°C after 48 h of incubation. The identification attempts by MALDI-TOF MS did not give a reliable result (score under 1.7) because there were no spectra corresponding to the existence of these bacterial strains in the database. Their reference spectra were added in our local database for future correct identification.

The 16S rRNA gene phylogenetic analysis showed that the strain Marseille-P8049T exhibited 96.88% sequence identity with Acinetobacter ursingii strain LUH3792 (GenBank accession number: NR_025392.1). Conversely, the strains Marseille-P7157T and Marseille-P2854T exhibited 99.04% and 99.48% with Gulosibacter faecalis strain B187 (Accession No: NR 041812.1) and Microbacterium aerolatum strain V-73 (Accession No: NR 028944.1), respectively, the phylogenetically closest species. In addition, phylogenetic trees of each strain comparing them to their closest species show that the strains Marseille-Q2854T, Marseille-P8049T, and Marseille-P7157T have a distinct position (Fig. 1).

Figure 1.

Phylogenetic tree showing the position of the strains Marseille-Q2854T, Marseille-P8049T, and Marseille-P7157T relative to other phylogenetic neighbors, based on the 16S rRNA gene sequences. The respective GenBank accession numbers for 16S rRNA genes are indicated in parenthesis. Sequences were aligned using Muscle v3.8.31 with default parameters and phylogenetic inferences obtained using the maximum likelihood method within MEGA 7 software (Kumar et al. 2008). Numbers at the nodes are percentages of bootstrap values obtained by repeating the analysis 500 times to generate a majority consensus tree.

Phenotypic and biochemical characteristics

Strains Marseille-P7157T and Marseille-Q2854T are Gram-stain positive and non-spore-forming rod-shaped bacteria (Fig. 2), with catalase-positive and oxidase-negative activities. Strain Marseille-P8049T is a Gram-stain negative, motile, non-spore-forming and rod-shaped bacterium (Fig. 2). Strain Marseille-P8049T has catalase-positive and oxidase-negative activities. The mean length and width of the strain Marseille-P7157T were 1.3 μm and 0.5 μm, respectively. Bacterial cells of strains Marseille-Q2854T and Marseille-P8049T had a mean length of 1.06 μm and 1.11 μm and a mean width of 0.32 μm and 0.56 μm, respectively. The growth of strains Marseille-P7157T, Marseille-Q2854T, and Marseille-P8049T was observed at temperatures ranging from 25 to 37°C after 24–48 h of incubation under aerobic, anaerobic, and microaerophilic atmospheres. Their optimal growth conditions were observed at 37°C after 48 h of incubation under aerobic atmosphere.

Figure 2.

Electron micrographs of the strains captured using the SU5000® scanning electron microscope. (A) Strain Marseille-P7157T; (B) Strain Marseille-P8049T; (C) Strain Marseille-Q2854T.

Regarding salt tolerance, strains Marseille-P7157T, Marseille-Q2854T and Marseille-P8049T were unable to grow on media with salt concentrations superior to 10% NaCl. Optimal growth is obtained with a pH ranging from 6.5 to 8.5, with an optimal growth pH of 7.5.

Using API ZYM strips, strain Marseille-P7157T was positive for esterase, esterase lipase, leucine arylamidase, and acid phosphatase. Strain Marseille-P8049T was positive for esterase, esterase lipase, leucine arylamidase, and naphthol-AS-BI-phosphohydrolase. Strain Marseille-P2854T was positive for leucine arylamidase, trypsin, naphthol-AS-BI-phosphohydrolase, and α-glucosidase. The use of API 50 CH strips revealed that esculin ferric citrate and D-trehalose (only for Marseille-P7157T) were the only carbohydrates consumed by these three species. All negative reactions obtained with API strips are assembled in Supplementary Table S1. A comparison of the main phenotypic criteria of these three species with their phylogenetically closest species is reported in Table 1.

Table 1.

Different characteristics of Acinetobacter ihumii sp. nov., strain Marseille-P8049T, Gulosibacter massiliensis sp. nov., strain Marseille-P7157T and Microbacterium ihumii sp. nov., strain Marseille-Q2854T with their phylogenetically closest related species.

	Acinetobacter species			Gulosibacter species			Microbacterium species
Characteristics	1	2	3	a	b	c	i	ii	iii
Cell size (µm)	1.1–0.5	NR	NR	1.3–0.5	0.3–1.1	0.3–1.1	1.0–0.3	0.5–1.9	NR
Optimum pH	7.5	NR	NR	7.5	8.0	8.0	7.5	NR	NR
Optimum temperature	37°C	37°C	37°C	37°C	30°C	30°C	37°C	37°C	25°C
D-arabitol	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	NR	-
Arbutin	-	NR	NR	-	-	-	-	-	+
D-glucose	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	+	+
D-lactose	-	+	+	-	-	-	-	-	-
D-mannose	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	+	+
D-melezitose	-	NR	NR	-	-	-	-	NR	+
D-melibiose	-	NR	NR	-	-	-	-	NR	+
N-acetylglucosamine	-	-	-	-	NR	NR	-	NR	+
D-raffinose	NR	-	-	-	-	-	-	NR	+
L-rhamnose	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	+	+
Sucrose	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	+	+
D-trehalose	-	-	-	+	-	-	-	-	+
D-xylose	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	+	-
DNA G + C content (mol %)	40.5	40.1	38.2	67.2	67.0	62.0	68.5	69.3	64.0

+: positive reaction; -: negative reaction; NR: Not reported; 1: Acinetobacter ihumii Marseille-P8049T; 2: Acinetobacter ursingii; 3: Acinetobacter septicus; a: Gulosibacter massiliensis Marseille-P7157T; b: Gulosibacter faecalis; c:Gulosibacter bifidus; i:Microbacterium ihumii Marseille-Q2854T; ii: Microbacterium aerolatum; iii: Microbacterium phyllosphaerae.

Marseille-Q2854T and Marseille-P7157T had the same major fatty acids, which respectively are 12-methyl-tetradecanoic acid (43.7% and 55.5%), 14-methyl-hexadecanoic acid (27.7% and 32.7%), and 14-methyl-pentadecanoic acid (18.9% and 9.8%), as indicated in Table 2. For strain Marseille-P8049 T, the major fatty acids were hexadecanoic acid (30.6%), 9-octadecenoic acid (25.8%) and dodecanoic acid (18.2%). The antibiotic susceptibility of the three strains was tested and their respective minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) (mg/L) are shown in Supplementary Table S2.

Table 2.

Cellular fatty acid composition (%) of 1, Acinetobacter ihumii sp. nov., strain Marseille-P8049T, 2, Gulosibacter massiliensis sp. nov., strain Marseille-P7157T and 3, Microbacterium ihumii sp. nov., strain Marseille-Q2854T.

		Mean relative %a
Fatty acids	Name	1	2	3
C16:0	Hexadecanoic acid	30.6	TR	1.8
C12:0	Dodecanoic acid	18.2	-	-
C12:03-OH	3-Hydroxydodecanoicacid	4.6	-	-
C14:03-OH	3-hydroxy-Tetradecanoicacid	3.8	-	-
C15:0 anteiso	12-methyl-tetradecanoicacid	-	55.5	43.7
C15:0 iso	13-methyl-tetradecanoicacid	-	TR	4.8
C16:0 iso	14-methyl-Pentadecanoicacid	-	9.8	18.9
C16:1n7	9-hexadecenoic acid	16.1	-	-
C17:0 anteiso	14-methyl-Hexadecanoicacid	-	32.7	27.7
C17:0 iso	15-methyl-Hexadecanoicacid	-	TR	1.8
C18:1n9	9-Octadecenoic acid	25.8	TR	TR

Mean peak area percentage; TR = trace amounts < 1%.

Genomic analysis

The genome size of strain Marseille-P8049T was 3.1 Mbp with 40.5 mol% of G + C content and 2915 protein-coding genes. Its assembly was achieved on 28 contigs, with the longest contig, contig7, being 0.6 Mb (Fig. 3). The genome size of strain Marseille-P7157T was 2.7 Mbp, with 67.2 mol% of G + C content and 2570 protein-coding genes. Its assembly was achieved on 2 contigs, with contig1 being 2.1 Mb (Fig. 3). Strain Marseille-P7157T has a genome size of 2.9 Mbp, with 68.5 mol% of G + C content and 2940 protein-coding genes. Its assembly was achieved on 24 contigs, with the longest contig, contig1, being 0.7 Mb (Fig. 3). The number of genes associated with general cluster orthologous groups (COGs) for the strains Marseille-Q2854T, Marseille-P8049T, Marseille-P7157T is shown in Supplementary Table S3. For these strains, the major proportion of genes was assigned to a general function prediction only.

Figure 3.

Circular map of the genome of strains Marseille-P7157T(A) Marseille-P8049T(B), and Marseille-Q2854T(C) using the CGView server (Grin and Linke 2011). Different components were highlighted with colored bands.

The genomic analysis with the TYGS server (https://tygs.dsmz.de/) confirms that the three studied strains cluster perfectly with their respective phylogenetically closest species, with very strong bootstrap values (100%), as shown in Supplementary Figure S1.

The degree of genomic similarity of strains Marseille-Q2854T, Marseille-P8049T, and Marseille-P7157T with their closely related species was estimated using the OrthoANI software (Lee et al. 2016) (Table 3). For strain Marseille-P8049T, values ranged from 75.2% with Acinetobacter pittii to 83.5% with Acinetobacter ursingii. The values from genomic analysis concerning strain Marseille-Q7157T are between 71.9% with Pseudoclavibacter helvolus to 82.0% with Gulosibacter faecalis (Table 3). For strain Marseille-Q2854T, OrthoANI values ranged from 78.8% with Microbacterium foliorum and Microbacterium phyllosphaerae to 83.7% with Microbacterium aerolatum (Table 3). In addition, the digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) calculation showed that strains Marseille-P8049T, Marseille-P7157T and Marseille-Q2854T shared genomic similarity of 27 ± 4.9%, 24.4 ± 4.8%, and 22 ± 4.7%, respectively with closely related species, such as Acinetobacter ursingii, Gulosibacter faecalis, and Microbacterium aerolatum, respectively (Table 3).

Table 3.

dDDH and average nucleotide identity (ANI) values obtained by comparison of strains Marseille-Q2854T, Marseille-P8049T, Marseille-P7157T and the closest species. The table is filled diagonally. The upper right part for dDDH values and the lower part represent ANI values. 100%, assumed to be in the middle, is removed to show a better separation between the two calculations.

Acinetobacter species
	A. baylyi	A. ihumii	A. pittii	A. septicus	A. ursingii
Acinetobacter baylyi		21.2 ± 4.7%	21.2 ± 4.7%	21.4 ± 4.7%	21.5 ± 4.7%
Acinetobacter ihumii	77.5%		20.2 ± 4.6%	26.6 ± 4.9%	27.0 ± 4.9%
Acinetobacter pittii	75.3%	75.2%		20.2 ± 4.7%	20.5 ± 4.7%
Acinetobacter septicus	77.5%	83.1%	75.5%		73.0 ± 5.8%
Acinetobacter ursingii	77.7%	83.5%	75.4%	96.8%
Gulosibacter species
	G. bifidus	G. faecalis	G. massiliensis	P. helvolus	P. terrae
Gulosibacter bifidus		20.8 ± 4.7	20.5 ± 4.6%	20.2 ± 4.6%	18.6 ± 4.5%
Gulosibacter faecalis	73.8%		24.4 ± 4.8%	19.2 ± 4.6%	19.0 ± 4.5%
Gulosibacter massiliensis	74.0%	82.0%		19.7 ± 4.6%	18.9 ± 4.5%
Pseudoclavibacter helvolus	70.3%	72.0%	71.9%		30.9 ± 4.9%
Pseudoclavibacter terrae	70.3%	72.1%	72.1%	86.1%
Microbacterium species
	M. aerolatum	M. foliorum	M. ginsengiterrae	M. ihumii	M. phyllosphaerae
Microbacterium aerolatum		26.9 ± 4.8	25.6 ± 4.9%	22.0 ± 4.7%	21.8 ± 4.7%
Microbacterium foliorum	78.6%		28.8 ± 4.9%	22.1 ± 4.7%	21.2 ± 4.7%
Microbacterium ginsengiterrae	82.4%	78.0%		25.2 ± 4.8%	21.2 ± 4.7%
Microbacterium ihumii	83.7%	78.8%	82.3%		21.9 ± 4.7%
Microbacterium phyllosphaerae	78.7%	85.1%	78.1%	78.8%

Discussion

The use of MALDI-TOF in clinical microbiology has allowed rapid and accurate identification of several microorganisms and consequently the discovery of new bacterial species (Fall et al. 2015). Therefore, it is considered a first-line tool in routine diagnosis in several clinical laboratories (Lo et al. 2015).

The three bacterial species studied all had a percentage of sequence similarity of the 16S rRNA gene above the recommended threshold value (Kim et al. 2019). Indeed, the 16S similarity value is not only the gold standard to prove the belonging of a bacterial strain to a taxon. Therefore, a polyphasic approach is integrated by modern taxonomists in the description of new species (Vandamme et al. 1996, Ramasamy et al. 2014). Thus, DDH and ANI calculations are made with the genomics of each species compared to those that are phylogenetically closer. In this study, all DDH values obtained were well below the 70% threshold value recommended for delineating the species barrier in prokaryotes (Auch et al. 2010). In addition, the calculated ANI values were all below to 95%–96%, the threshold necessary for a strain to be considered as member belonging to a bacterial species (Meier-Kolthoff et al. 2013).

Conclusion

The unique phenotypic, biochemical, and genomic characteristics possessed by the strains Marseille-P8049T, Marseille-Q2854T, and Marseille-P7157T allowed us to conclude that they are new bacterial species compared to others with a valid published name. They were classified as new species and named Acinetobacter ihumii sp. nov., Microbacterium ihumii sp. nov., and Gulosibacter massiliensis sp. nov., respectively.

Description of Gulosibacter massiliensis sp. nov.

Gulosibacter massiliensis (mas.si.lien′sis, L. fem. massiliensis from Massilia, the Latin name of Marseille, France, where the type strain was isolated). It is Gram-positive, motile, non-spore-forming, rod-shaped and aerobic bacterium, catalase-positive, and oxidase-negative. The cells have a mean length of 1.3 μm and a mean width of 0.5 μm. Positive reactions were observed with esterase, esterase lipase, leucine arylamidase and acid phosphatase, while negative reactions were observed with alkaline phosphatase, lipase, valine arylamidase, cystine arylamidase, trypsin, α-chymotrypsin, naphthol-AS-BI-phosphohydrolase, α-galactosidase, β-galactosidase, β-glucuronidase, α-and β-glucosidase, N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase, α-mannosidase, and α-fucosidase. It ferments esculin ferric citrate and D-trehalose. The most abundant fatty acids (>9%) were 12-methyl-tetradecanoic acid, 14-methyl-hexadecanoic acid and 14-methyl-pentadecanoic acid, while minor amounts of unsaturated and linear fatty acids were also detected.

The genome is 2075 628 bp long, with G + C content of 67.2 mol%. The 16S rRNA and genome sequences are available in GenBank under accession numbers LR031295 and UYZX01000001, respectively.

The type strain Marseille-P7157T ( = CSUR P7157 = CECT 30 048) was isolated from a human blood sample.

Description of Acinetobacter ihumii sp. nov.

Acinetobacter ihumii (i.hu.mi'i. N.L. gen. masc. n. ihumii, based on the acronym IHUMI, meaning Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée-Infection, the clinical lab where the type strain was isolated). It is an aerobic Gram-negative bacterium. Bacterial cells are motile, non-spore-forming and rod-shaped, with a mean length of 1.1 μm and width of 0.5 μm, catalase positive and oxidase negative. Enzymes such as esterase, esterase lipase, leucine arylamidase, and naphthol-AS-BI-phosphohydrolase are present, while those such as alkaline phosphatase, lipase, valine arylamidase, cystine arylamidase, trypsin, α-chymotrypsin, acid phosphatase, α-galactosidase, β-galactosidase, β-glucuronidase, α-glucosidase, β-glucosidase, N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase, α-mannosidase, and α-fucosidase are absent. Only esculin ferric citrate was positive among the carbohydrates tested. The most abundant fatty acids (>18%) were hexadecanoic acid, 9-octadecenoic acid, and dodecanoic acid. Two specific 3-hydroxy structures were also described.

The genome is 3 299 805 bp long with G + C content of 40.5 mol%. The 16S rRNA and genome sequences are deposited in the GenBank database under accession numbers LR031292 and UYYC00000000, respectively.

The strain Marseille-P8049T ( = CSUR P8049 = CECT 30 350) was the type strain of Acinetobacter ihumii sp. nov., which was isolated from a human blood sample.

Description Microbacterium ihumii sp. nov.

Microbacterium ihumii (i.hu.mi'i. N.L. gen. masc. n. ihumii, based on the acronym IHUMI, meaning Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée-Infection, the clinical lab where the type strain was isolated). It is an aerobic Gram-positive bacterium. The cells are non-motile, non-spore-forming with a short rod-shape (mean length = 1.06 μm and mean width = 0.32 μm), catalase-positive, and oxidase negative. It possesses leucine arylamidase, trypsin, naphthol-AS-BI-phosphohydrolase and α-glucosidase. A positive reaction was obtained with esculin ferric citrate, but no reaction was observed with other carbohydrates and its derivatives (heterosides, polyalcohols, and uronic acids). In addition, the major fatty acids were branched C15:0 anteiso, C17:0 anteiso, and C16:0 iso. Minor amounts of unsaturated and linear fatty acids were also detected.

The genome is 2954541 bp long and the G + C content is 68.5 mol%. The 16S rRNA and genome sequences are available in GenBank under accession numbers MZ089993 and CAHJXQ000000000, respectively.

The type strain Marseille-Q2854T ( = CSUR Q2854 = CECT 30 120) was isolated from a human blood sample.

Funding

This work was supported by 'Fondation Méditerranée Infection' and the French Government under the ‘Investissements d'avenir’ (Investments for the Future) program managed by the 'Agence Nationale de la Recherche', reference: Méditerranée Infection 10-IAHU-03.

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