Two novel Raoultella species associated with bleeding cankers of broadleaf hosts, Raoultella scottia sp. nov. and Raoultella lignicola sp. nov

Carrie Brady; Bridget Crampton; Sundeep Kaur; Daniel Maddock; Helene Kile; Dawn Arnold; Sandra Denman

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2024.1386923

Two novel Raoultella species associated with bleeding cankers of broadleaf hosts, Raoultella scottia sp. nov. and Raoultella lignicola sp. nov

Front Microbiol. 2024 May 2:15:1386923. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1386923. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Carrie Brady¹, Bridget Crampton², Sundeep Kaur², Daniel Maddock¹, Helene Kile¹, Dawn Arnold³, Sandra Denman²

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Research in Bioscience, College of Health, Science and Society, University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom.
² Centre for Forest Protection, Forest Research, Farnham, United Kingdom.
³ Harper Adams University, Newport, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Seventeen Gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic bacterial strains were isolated from bleeding cankers of various broadleaf hosts and oak rhizosphere soil in Great Britain. The strains were tentatively identified as belonging to the genus Raoultella based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA), based on four protein-encoding genes (fusA, leuS, pyrG, and rpoB), separated the strains into three clusters within the Raoultella genus clade. The majority of strains clustered with the type strain of Raoultella terrigena, with the remaining strains divided into two clusters with no known type strain. Whole genome sequencing comparisons confirmed these two clusters of strains as belonging to two novel Raoultella species which can be differentiated phenotypically from their current closest phylogenetic relatives. Therefore, two novel species are proposed: Raoultella scottia sp. nov. (type strain = BAC 10a-01-01^T = LMG 33072^T = CCUG 77096^T) and Raoultella lignicola sp. nov. (type strain = TW_WC1a.1^T = LMG 33073^T = CCUG 77094^T).

Keywords: Enterobacteriaceae; Liriodendron; Platanus; Raoultella; Tilia; bleeding canker.

Grants and funding

The authors declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was supported by the UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Strategic Priorities Fund (SPF) programme on Bacterial Plant Diseases (grant BB/T010886/1) funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Scottish Government. CB received additional funding from Woodland Heritage (Charity No. 1041611) and SD received funding from the Forestry Commission.