SGM Journals
Firmicutes And Related Organisms

Streptococcus tigurinus sp. nov., isolated from blood of patients with endocarditis, meningitis and spondylodiscitis

Andrea Zbinden, Nicolas J. Mueller, Philip E. Tarr, Cathrin Spröer, Peter M. Keller, Guido V. Bloemberg

  • 1Institute of Medical Microbiology, University of Zurich, Gloriastrasse 30/32, CH-8006 Zürich, Switzerland
  • 2Division of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiology, University Hospital Zurich, Rämistrasse 100, CH-8091 Zürich, Switzerland
  • 3Infectious Diseases Service, Kantonsspital Bruderholz, University of Basel, Petersplatz 1, CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland
  • 4DSMZ – Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH, Inhoffenstraße 7B, D-38124 Braunschweig, Germany
  • Correspondence
    Andrea Zbinden azbinden{at}imm.uzh.ch

    • International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 2012; 62(Pt 12):2941–2945 · https://doi.org/10.1099/ijs.0.038299-0

    View at publisher PubMed

    Abstract

    Four Gram-stain-positive, catalase-negative, coccus-shaped bacterial strains were isolated from multiple blood cultures of patients with endocarditis, meningitis and spondylodiscitis. The isolates were tentatively identified as viridans streptococci on the basis of phenotypic characteristics. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequencing studies showed that the organisms were members of the Streptococcus mitis group but did not correspond to any recognized species. The nearest phylogenetic relative was S. mitis ATCC 49456T, with 98.6 % sequence similarity. The representative strain AZ_3aT showed less than 96.8, 97.6, 94.5 and 95.5 % similarity to the phylogenetically most closely related species by recA, rpoB, sodA and groEL gene sequence analysis, respectively. DNA–DNA hybridization analyses showed a low reassociation value of 32.2 % between strain AZ_3aT and S. mitis DSM 12643T. Reassociation values with members of other S. mitis group species ranged from 27.3 to 49.7 %. The G+C content of the DNA was 40.0 mol%. Based on our biochemical and molecular analyses, the isolates represent a novel species, for which the name Streptococcus tigurinus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is AZ_3aT ( = CCOS 600T  = DSM 24864T).

    • The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the 16S rRNA, recA, rpoB, sodA and groEL gene sequences of strain AZ_3aT are JN004270, JN004271, JQ085955, JQ085956 and JQ085957, respectively.

    • Five supplementary figures are available with the online version of this paper.

    Abbreviations:
    MALDI-TOF
    matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight