title: Identification of a novel alpha-proteobacterium causing bacteraemia in an immunocompetent patient.
abstract: An 89-year male with pyrexia and suspected bacteremia was admitted to hospital, where a Gram-negative rod was identified from blood culture. The organism was difficult to identify phenotypically and the resulting sequencing of a 559 bp section of the 16S rRNA gene did not have a high homology score (>97.0%) with any deposited GenBank accession numbers and hence was not able to be assigned to a species within any genus. Given that the isolate was a member of the alpha subclass of the Proteobacteria but did not fall into any of the known genera with more than 93.7% homology (Brucella, Rhizobium, Ochrobactrum, Agrobacterium), we believe this isolate to represent a novel alpha-proteobacterium, which was the cause of bacteraemia in this patient.
authors.affiliation: Northern Ireland Public Health Laboratory, Department of Bacteriology, Belfast City Hospital, Belfast BT9 7AD, Northern Ireland, UK.
authors.forename: Jiru
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: B Cherie
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Millar
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Crowe
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: McClurg
authors.forename: Liam G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Heaney
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D020561:Alphaproteobacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016470:Bacteremia / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012329:RNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D012329:RNA, Bacterial