A novel species within the genus Eikenella is described, based on the phenotypical, biochemical and genetic characterization of a strain of a facultatively anaerobic, Gram-negative rod-shaped bacterium. Strain S3360T was isolated from the throat swab of a patient sampled during routine care at a hospital. Phylogenetic analyses (full-length 16S rRNA gene and whole-genome sequences) placed the strain in the genus Eikenella, separate from all recognized species but with the closest relationship to Eikenella longinqua (NML 02-A-017T). Eikenella is one of the genera in the HACEK group known to be responsible for rare cases of endocarditis in humans. Until the recent descriptions of Eikenella exigua, Eikenella halliae and Eikenella longinqua, Eikenella corrodens had been the only validly published species in this genus since its description as Bacteroides corrodens in 1958. Unlike these species, strain S3360T is able to metabolize carbohydrates (glucose). The average nucleotide identities of strain S3360T with E. longinqua (NML 02-A-017T) and E. corrodens (NCTC 10596T), the type species of the genus, were 90.5 and 84.7 %, respectively, and the corresponding genome-to-genome distance values were 41.3 and 29.0 %, respectively. The DNA G+C content of strain S3360T was 58.4 mol%. Based on the phenotypical, biochemical and genetic findings, strain S3360T is considered to represent a novel species within the genus Eikenella, for which the name Eikenella glucosivorans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is S3360T (DSM 110714T=CCOS 1935T=CCUG 74293T). In addition, an emendation of the genus Eikenella is proposed to include species which are saccharolytic.
Keywords: HACEK; Neisseriaceae; clinical isolate; novel species; phylogenomics; whole-genome sequence.