Proposal of Pseudarcicella hirudinis gen. nov. sp. nov., isolated from the skin of the medical leech Hirudo medicinalis.

Abstract

A pinkish pigmented, Gram-negative, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming bacterium (strain E92T), was isolated from the skin of the medical leech Hirudo medicinalis , on R2A Agar The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis of strain E92T showed a relatively low (93.0 – 93.5%) to representatives of the genus Arcicella and 91.5% - 92.0% to members of the genus Flectobacillus. The polar lipid profile was composed of the major compounds phosphatidylethanolamine, an unidentified aminophospholipid, an unidentified aminolipid and an unidentified polar lipid (L1). Glycolipids were not detected. The major quinone was menquinone MK-7. Major compound in the polyamine pattern was spermidine. The predominant fatty acids were C16:1 ωc and 16:1 ω7c and/or 15 iso 2-OH (detected as summed feature 3), the isolate did not show the hydroxyl fatty acid, iso C17:0 3-OH and C14:0 found in all representatives of Arcicella and Flectobacillus, but produced C18:1 ωc and 11-methyl C18:1ωc not found in Arcicella and Flectobacillus. The DNA G+C content of the strain E92T was 64.4 mol %. The unique 16S rRNA gene sequence, specific chemotaxonomic and physiological tests revealed that strain E92T represents a new genus in the family Cytophagaceae. Hence we propose the name Pseudarcicella hirudinis gen. nov., sp. nov. with the type strain E92T (= LMG 26720T = CCM 7988T)