title: Porphyromonas somerae sp. nov., a pathogen isolated from humans and distinct from porphyromonas levii.
abstract: Porphyromonas levii is an anaerobic, pigmented gram-negative bacillus originally isolated from bovine rumen. We describe 58 human clinical strains of P. levii-like organisms, isolated from various human clinical specimens that are phenotypically similar to the type strain of P. levii, a rumen isolate (ATCC 29147). Our biochemical, comparative 16S rRNA sequence analyses, and DNAlpha-DNA relatedness studies indicate that the human P. levii-like organisms are similar to each other but genetically different from the P. levii type strain isolated from bovine rumen. We therefore propose the name Porphyromonas somerae to encompass the human P. levii-like organisms. P. somerae was predominantly isolated from patients with chronic skin and soft tissue or bone infections, especially in the lower extremities.
authors.affiliation: Research Service, Veterans Affair Medical Center West Los Angeles, CA 90073, USA. carlsonph@aol.com
authors.forename: Paula H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Summanen
authors.forename: Bengül
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Durmaz
authors.forename: Marja-Liisa
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Väisänen
authors.forename: Chengxu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Denise
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Molitoris
authors.forename: Erkki
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Eerola
authors.forename: Ilkka M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Helander
authors.forename: Sydney M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Finegold
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D016866:Bacteroidaceae Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D010641:Phenotype; D017861:Porphyromonas / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S