Phylogeny of Species in the Family Neisseriaceae Isolated from Human Dental Plaque and Description of Kingella orale sp. nov.

Abstract

Fourteen human periodontal isolates recovered from a purported Eikenella corrodens-selective medium containing 1 pg of clindamycin per ml displayed biochemical traits which differed from those described for E. corrodens. These organisms were gram-negative rods which corroded agar. The isolates were oxidase positive and urease, indole, and esculin negative. They differed from E. corrodens in catalase, nitrate reduction, lysine decarboxylase, and ornithine decarboxylase activities. One isolate, strain UB-294, was presumptively identified as Kingella denitnjkans. A second isolate, strain UB-204, differed from E. corrodens by being catalase positive and nitrate reduction negative. Twelve isolates, including strain UB-3ST (T = type strain), were phenotypically similar to Kingella kingae except that they did not produce acid from maltose and were not beta-hemolytic. Essentially complete (1,480-base) 16s rRNA sequences were determined for strains UB-3ST, UB-204, and UB-294 and the type strains of Neisseria animalis, Neisseria canis, Neisseria denitr@cans, Neisseria elongata, Neisseria JEavescens, Neisseria macaca, and Neisseriu polysaccharea. These sequences were compared with the previously published sequences of six other species belonging to the family Neisseriaceae. On the basis of the results of the comparative sequence analysis, UB-294 was confirmed as a K. denitrificans strain, UB-204 was identified as a member of a new species which may belong in the genus Eikenella, and UB-38T was identified as a member of a new species of the genus Kingelk, for which we propose the name Kingella orale. Since strain UB-204 was the only representative of a new species, it was not named. DNA probes for identification of E. corrodens, K. denitrificans, and K. orale based on 16s rRNA sequence information are described.In a previous study examining the prevalence of Eikenella corrodens in the human oral cavity, we frequently encountered gram-negative bacteria phenotypically similar to, but distinguishable from, Eikenella corrodens (2). These nonEikenella corrodens isolates grew well on selective medium containing 1 kg of clindamycin per ml, corroded agar, and did not produce acid from sugars as determined by standard broth tests. In contrast to Eikenella corrodens, these isolates lacked one or more of the following biochemical traits: nitrate reduction activity, lysine decarboxylase activity, and ornithine decarboxylase activity. In a subsequent study of six of these isolates, we reported that they exhibited less than 33% DNA homology with Eikenella cowodens reference strains (3). Four of these strains exhibited more than 70% DNA homology with one another, indicating that they belonged to a single species. In this study, we further characterized these six isolates, as well as eight additional strains. We found that the 14 isolates fell into three groups on the basis of biochemical characteristics and protein profiles determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). 16s rRNA sequences were determ...

Phylogeny of the genus Simonsiella and other members of the Neisseriaceae.

“…Some analyses showed S. muelleri branching with Neisseria denitrificans. A phylogenetic relationship between S. muelleri and N. denitrificans was supported by relatively high 16S rDNA similarity levels (96n4-96n6 %) and was presented previously by Dewhirst et al (1989Dewhirst et al ( , 1993. However, in other analyses, no specific relationship between S. muelleri and N. denitrificans was implied (data not shown).…”

“…Since only one Simonsiella strain has been included in published molecular phylogenetic studies, and those studies were restricted to distance analyses that were 01952 # 2002 IUMS Printed in Great Britain not evaluated by tree-validation techniques such as bootstrap replications (Dewhirst et al, 1989(Dewhirst et al, , 1993, several questions concerning Simonsiella evolution remain. These questions include : (i) is the genus Simonsiella monophyletic ?…”

Kingella kingae: Carriage, Transmission, and Disease

“…The genus Kingella belongs to the Neisseriaceae family in the beta subclass of the Proteobacteria and comprises four recognized species: K. denitrificans, which has been implicated in cases of bacteremia, endocarditis, pleural empyema, pediatric vaginitis, chorioamnionitis, and granulomatous disease in AIDS patients (26)(27)(28)(29); K. oralis, which is a commensal dweller of the human buccal cavity and is associated with dental plaque and periodontitis (30,31); K. potus, a zoonotic organism recovered from an infected bite (32); and K. kingae. Although K. kingae's taxonomic place remained uncertain for many years (1,2), subsequent analysis of its biochemical profile and fatty acid composition (33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39) and genotypic studies (33,(40)(41)(42)(43)(44) have led to the conclusion that K. kingae constitutes a separate species, only distantly linked to other Neisseriaceae (44).…”

Misidentification of <i>Neisseria cinerea</i> as <i>Neisseria meningitidis</i> by Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS)

“…The differential characteristics of N. meningitidis, N. cinerea, and N. polysaccharea are presented in Table 1 ( [12][13][14].…”