Prevotella mikamonis sp. nov., isolated from equine clinical specimens

In this study, five strains of anaerobic, Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacteria were characterized phenotypically, biochemically and genotypically. These strains were clinically isolated from horse specimens in Japan. Phylogenetic trees constructed based on 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons showed distinct clustering of the five strains with the type strains of closely related species. The genomic DNA G+C content was 46.7 mol%. The major cellular fatty acids identified were C16:0, 3-OH-C16:0 and 3-OH-iso-C16:0. Whole-genome comparisons based on average nucleotide identity using blast (ANIb) and in silico digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) revealed that the five strains demonstrated ANIb and dDDH values of less than 73.1% and 28.6%, respectively, compared with the type strains of closely related species, such as Prevotella phocaeensis and Prevotella merdae. Based on these phenotypic, phylogenetic and genomic data, a novel species of the genus Prevotella, Prevotella mikamonis sp. nov., is proposed, with GTC17253T (CCUG77931T) as the type strain.