Identification of some clinical strains of CDC coryneform group A-3 and A-4 bacteria as Cellulomonas species and proposal of Cellulomonas hominis sp. nov. for some group A-3 strains.

CDC coryneform group A-3 and A-4 bacteria were defined by Hollis and Weaver in 1981, but their taxonomic position is still unclear. By using biochemical and chemotaxonomical methods, four clinical strains belonging to CDC coryneform groups A-3 (n = 2) and A-4 (n = 2) were studied and could be assigned to the genus Cellulomonas, resulting in the first description of Cellulomonas strains isolated from clinical specimens. CDC coryneform group A-3 and A-4 strains were compared with the type strains of the seven species constituting the genus Cellulomonas at present as well as with the closely related species Oerskovia turbata, Oerskovia xanthineolytica, and Jonesia denitrificans, but their biochemical patterns were not compatible with the patterns of any of those species. Almost the entire sequences of the 16S rRNA genes of one representative strain of both CDC taxa were determined, and comparative sequence analysis confirmed the placement of the CDC coryneform group A-3 and A-4 strains studied in the Cellulomonas-Oerskovia subbranch of the actinomycetes. Both CDC taxa exhibited > 99% base pair homology within their 16S rDNAs. On the basis of phenotypic and molecular data, we formally propose a new species, Cellulomonas hominis sp. nov., for the CDC coryneform group A-3 bacteria examined. The type strain is DSM 9581. The precise taxonomic status of the CDC coryneform group A-4 strains studied remains to be established by quantitative DNA-DNA hybridizations.