Abyssicoccus albus gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel member of the family Staphylococcaceae isolated from marine sediment of the Indian Ocean

Abstract

A Gram-stain positive, aerobic, non-motile, asporogenous, coccoid shaped bacterium, designated YIM M12140(T), was isolated from a marine sediment sample collected from the Indian Ocean. Phylogenetic analysis showed that strain YIM M12140(T) forms a separate clade within the family Staphylococcaceae. Strain YIM M12140(T) shares high 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with Macrococcus brunensis DSM 19358(T) (92.9 %). The isolate was found to grow at 0-10 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 2-3 %), pH 6.0-10.0 (optimum, pH 8.0) and temperature 5-40 °C (optimum, 28 °C). The polar lipids were identified as diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, one unidentified aminophospholipid and two unidentified polar lipids. The major cellular fatty acids of the strain were identified as anteiso-C15:0, -C17:0, iso-C16:0, anteiso-C19:0 and C20:0. The respiratory menaquinones were found to be MK-6 (94 %) and MK-7 (6 %). The cell wall amino acids were found to contain Lys, Ala, Glu, Gly, Asp, Ser and Thr. Whole cell sugars were identified as mannose, ribose, rhamnose, glucose, galactose and xylose. The G+C content of the genomic DNA of strain YIM M12140(T) was determined to be 42.4 mol %. Based on phenotypic, chemotaxonomic data and phylogenetic analysis, it is proposed that strain YIM M12140(T) represents a novel species of a new genus in the family Staphylococcaceae, for which the name Abyssicoccus albus gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM M12140(T) (= DSM 29158(T) = CCTCC AB 2014213(T)).

Phylogenomic analyses of the Staphylococcaceae family suggest the reclassification of five species within the genus Staphylococcus as heterotypic synonyms, the promotion of five subspecies to novel species, the taxonomic reassignment of five Staphylococcus species to Mammaliicoccus gen. nov., and the formal assignment of Nosocomiicoccus to the family Staphylococcaceae

“…The species description is same as given before [10,13] with the following amendments. The cells were coccus shaped, aerobically respiring, non-spore formers and non-motile.…”

“…The genus Nosocomiicoccus is comprised of two species, N. ampullae and N. massiliensis, both of which were isolated from clinical samples [5,7]. The genera Aliicoccus, Abyssicoccus, Auricoccus and Corticicoccus are each comprised of a single species that was isolated from a hypersaline lake, marine sediment, the skin of human ear and the bark of Populus species respectively [9,10,12,13].…”

Unification of Abyssicoccus albus Jiang et al. 2016 and Auricoccus indicus Prakash et al. 2017 and the status of the genus Auricoccus Prakash et al. 2017

“…albus pertaining to the white colour of the type strain colonies). The characteristics of the species are essentially as provided by Jiang et al [3], but based on the Auricoccus indicus description [1], members of the species may have a colony colour different from white, and while they are mesophiles and neutrophiles and can tolerate at least 10 % NaCl in growth media, their temperature, pH and NaCl tolerance growth ranges may differ between strains.…”

“…indicus S31 T genome consists of 1 745 789 bp and contains 1792 genes, and the size of A. albus DSM 29158 T draft genome sequence is 1 796 081 bp, and 1840 genes were revealed during its annotation. However, there was the large difference between the DNA G+C content values of A. albus YIM M12140 T (42.4 mol% [3]) and Aur. indicus S31 T (34.0 mol% [1]) presented in their descriptions that might indicate that the strains at least belong to different species, but the calculations of the G+C contents of A. albus DSM 29158 T and Aur.…”

“…Unfortunately, strain YIM M12140 T isolated from marine sediment in the Indian Ocean and proposed as the type strain of Abyssicoccus albus gen. nov., sp. nov. by Jiang et al in 2016 [3,4] was not included into the study by Prakash et al [1]. The position of this strain in the neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences [3] is similar to that of Aur.…”