Acinetobacter faecalis Sp. Nov., Isolated from Elephant Faeces

Abstract

A Gram-negative coccobacillus, YIM 103518^T, isolated from wild elephant feces in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, West China, was characterized and identified using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. The strain was strictly aerobic, non-motile, catalase-positive and oxidase-negative, colonies were round, convex, smooth, and pale yellow. The strain growth at 4-40 ℃ (optimum, 28 ℃), pH 6.0-10.0 (optimum, pH 7.0) and 0-4% NaCl (optimum, 0%) in culture medium YIM 38. The major fatty acids of strain YIM 103518^T were summed feature 3 (C_16:1 ω6c/C_16:1 ω7c), C_16:0, and C_18:1 ω9c. The predominant ubiquinone was Q-9. The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine and phospholipids. The 16S rRNA gene sequence showed moderate level of similarity with Acinetobacter portensis AC 877^T (98.7%), Acinetobacter sichuanensis CCTCC AB 2018118^T (97.1%), and Acinetobacter cumulans CCTCC AB 2018119^T (97.1%). The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 36.5 mol%. Strain YIM 103518^T showed an average nucleotide identity value of 86.6%, 77.3% and 78.5%, a digital DNA-DNA hybridizations value of 31.2%, 21.9% and 23.0% with the type strain of A. portensis, A. sichuanensis and A. cumulans based on draft genome sequences, respectively. The results of the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analyses, showed that strain YIM 103518^T represents a novel species of the genus Acinetobacter, for which the name Acinetobacter faecalis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM 103518^T (=CCTCC AB 2019201^T = NBRC 114057^T).