An obligately anaerobic, non-motile, Gram-negative and rod-shaped strain (AGMB03916T) was isolated from faeces of a 2-week-old piglet raised at the National Institute of Animal Science in Wanju, Republic of Korea. Growth of strain AGMB03916T occurred at 30-45 °C (optimum, 37 °C), at pH 6-9 (optimum, pH 8) and in the presence of 0.5-1.0 % (w/v) NaCl. Based on the results of 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses, strain AGMB03916T was closely related to two validly published species of the genus Phocaeicola, Phocaeicola plebeius and Phocaeicola coprocola. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of strain AGMB03916T compared to P. plebeius M12T (=KCTC 5793T) and P. coprocola M16T (=KCTC 5443T) were 96.3 and 95.0 %, respectively. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain AGMB03916T was 46.4 mol%. The average nucleotide identity values between strain AGMB03916T and the reference strains were 74.9-78.5 %. Cells were able to utilize d-glucose, lactose, sucrose, maltose, salicin, aesculin hydrolysis, cellobiose and raffinose. The major end product of metabolism was acetate. The major cellular fatty acids (>10 %) of the isolate were iso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C15 : 0, C16 : 0, C16 : 0 3-OH and summed feature 11 (iso-C17 : 0 3-OH and/or C18 : 2 DMA). On the basis of the genotypic, biochemical, chemotaxonomic, phenotypic and phylogenetic data, strain AGMB03916T represents a novel species of the genus Phocaeicola, for which the name Phocaeicola faecicola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is AGMB03916T (=KCTC 25014T=GDMCC 1.2574T).
Keywords: Bacteroides; Obligate anaerobe; Phocaeicola faecicola; Porcine faeces.