Two new members of the family Aerococcaceae: Tuanshanicoccus yangjingiae gen. nov., sp. nov. and Tuanshanicoccus lijuaniae sp. nov., isolated from the trachea of Marmota himalayana.

Abstract

Nine strains of two Gram-positive, facultative anaerobic, catalase-, oxidase- and urease-negative coccoid species, designated as zg-252^T, zg-1578, zg-B36, zg-ZUI334, and zg-1292^T, zg-A91, zg-BR9, zg-BR22 and zg-BR33, were isolated from the trachea of Marmota himalayana. The nine strains grew optimally at 37 °C, pH 7.0 and 0.5% NaCl. Comparative analysis of the 16S rRNA gene revealed that the two novel type strains were most closely related to each other, with low similarity to known species in the family Aerococcaceae. Phylogenetic analyses based on the 16S rRNA gene and genome suggested that the nine strains form two independent branches, well separated from all genera of this family. The genomic G+C contents of strains zg-252^T and zg-1292^T were 36.0 mol% and 37.8 mol%. Comparative genomic analysis proved that the nine strains represent two different novel species of a new genus. The major fatty acids of this novel genus were C_18 : 1  ω9c and C_16 : 0, with diphosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylglycerol as the major polar lipids, but no quinones were detected. The two novel species shared cell-wall aa (glutamic acid, alanine and lysine) and cell-wall sugars (ribose; with additional glucose in zg-1292^T). Based on the polyphasic analysis, we proposed that the unknown bacteria can be classified as Tuanshanicoccus gen. nov., with two species in this novel genus, type species Tuanshanicoccus yangjingiae gen. nov., sp. nov. (zg-252^T = GDMCC 1.1725^T = JCM 34096^T) and Tuanshanicoccus lijuaniae sp. nov. (zg-1292^T = GDMCC 1.2118^T = KCTC 43284^T).