title: Isolation of a novel bacterium, Blautia glucerasei sp. nov., hydrolyzing plant glucosylceramide to ceramide.
abstract: A bacterial strain that is capable of hydrolyzing plant glucosylceramide (GluCer) was newly isolated from dog feces. The novel strain, designated as strain HFTH-1(T), hydrolyzed plant GluCer with a variety of chemical structures, but did not hydrolyze glucosylsphingosine, lactosylceramide, or monosialoganglioside GM(3), indicating that strain HFTH-1(T) produces GluCer-specific glucosylceramidase. Strain HFTH-1(T) was Gram-positive, anaerobic, oval-spore-forming, rod-shaped, lecithinase-negative, and lipase-negative. It fermented a wide variety of carbohydrates and produced mainly acetate, formate, and lactate from glucose. The G + C content of its DNA was 40.7 mol%. The phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA sequence revealed that strain HFTH-1(T) is placed in the clostridial rRNA cluster XIVa, with Ruminococcus obeum as the nearest relative. Pairwise comparison revealed approximately 5.0% sequence divergence between strain HFTH-1(T) and the type strain of R. obeum. On the basis of its phenotypic characteristics and phylogenetic divergence, it is proposed that the hitherto unknown rod-shaped bacterial strain HFTH-1(T) (= DSM 22028(T) = NBRC 104932(T)) should be placed in the genus Blautia as a novel species, Blautia glucerasei sp. nov, the only currently known isolate of the species.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Science, Meiji University, Higashimita, Tama-ku, Kawasaki, Japan. furuya@musc.edu
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Furuya
authors.forename: Yukari
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ide
authors.forename: Makiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hamamoto
authors.forename: Narito
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Asanuma
authors.forename: Tsuneo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hino
mesh_terms: D000693:Anaerobiosis; D000818:Animals; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D001482:Base Composition; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004285:Dogs; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D005963:Glucosylceramides / Q000378:metabolism; D006094:Gram-Positive Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D010944:Plants / Q000737:chemistry; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013171:Spores, Bacterial / Q000166:cytology
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D005963:Glucosylceramides; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S