sp. nov., isolated from oral cavity of northern elephant seal ().

Two independent strains of a species (ES3154-GLU and ES2714_GLU) were isolated from the oral cavity of northern elephant seals () that were admitted to The Marine Mammal Centre facilities in California, USA. The strains were isolated from oral swabs by cultivation in PPLO broth supplemented with serum, penicillin and colistin in anaerobic conditions. The strains were Gram-negative, pleomorphic, indole-, oxidase- and catalase-negative, non-spore-forming, non-motile rods/coccobacilli in short chains. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of these strains shared 94.42 % nucleotide similarity with AVG 2115 but demonstrated ≤86.00-92.50 % nucleotide similarity to the 16S rRNA genes of other species of the family . The genome was sequenced for strain ES3154-GLU. Average nucleotide identity values between strain ES3154-GLU and 15 type strain genomes from the family ranged from 66.74 % vs. to 73.35 % vs. . The whole genome phylogeny revealed that the novel species was most closely related to AVG 2115. This relationship was also confirmed by nucleotide similarity and multilocus phylogenetic analyses employing various housekeeping genes (partial 23S rRNA, , , , , , and genes). Chemotaxonomic and phenotypical features of strain ES3154-GLU were in congruence with closely related members of the family , represented by similar enzyme profiles and fatty acid patterns. MALDI-TOF MS analysis was capable to clearly discriminate strain ES3154-GLU from all currently described taxa of the family . Based on these data, we propose a novel species of the genus , for which the name sp. nov. is proposed with the type strain ES3154-GLU (=DSM 109740=CCUG 73653=ATCC TSD-189=NCTC 14411) and one representative strain ES2714_GLU. The G+C content is 26.82 %, genome size is 1 356 983 bp.