title: Taxonomic relatedness between Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum, Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. odoriferum and Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. brasiliense subsp. nov.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Pectobacterium carotovorum is a heterogeneous species consisting of two named subspecies, P. carotovorum subsp. carotovorum and P. carotovorum subsp. odoriferum. A third subspecies, P. carotovorum subsp. brasiliense, was previously proposed. The study aimed to confirm the subspecies status and validate the proposed name of P. carotovorum subsp. brasiliense using a novel and standard microbial taxonomy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  DNA-DNA hybridization confirmed that P. carotovorum subsp. brasiliense is a different species from P. wasabiae, P. betavasculorum and P. atrosepticum, with 28, 35 and 55% similarity values, respectively, but is a member of the P. carotovorum species with 73-77% similarity values. Sequencing the entire 16S rRNA gene of two polymorphic copies from strains of each of the P. carotovorum subspecies demonstrated that the average 16S rRNA gene sequence diversity between P. carotovorum subsp. brasiliense and P. carotovorum subsp. carotovorum was lower than the maximum genetic distances between two sequence types obtained from the same strain. Multilocus sequence analysis based on eight housekeeping genes (mtlD, acnA, icdA, mdh, pgi, gabA, proA and rpoS) differentiated the subspecies and delineated two P. carotovorum subsp. brasiliense clades.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. brasiliense clade I was comprised of strains isolated from Brazil and Peru, while clade II included strains from Asia, North America and Europe. Strains in clade I but not clade II were phenotypically consistent with the original description of P. carotovorum subsp. brasiliense in that they produced reducing substances from sucrose and acid from α-methyl glucoside. The type strain for P. carotovorum subsp. brasiliense 212(T)  (= LMG2137(T)  = IBSBF1692(T)  = CFBP6617(T) ) was previously designated. The GC mol content of the type strain is 51·7%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  the study introduces a full description for the strains belonging to the two different clades assigned to P. carotovorum subsp. brasiliense.
authors: Institute for plant disease and plant protection, Hannover University, Hannover, Germany. nabhan@ipp.uni-hannover.de
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Nabhan
authors: S H
authors: SH
authors: De Boer
authors: E
authors: E
authors: Maiss
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Wydra
mesh_terms: D001208:Asia; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D001482:Base Composition; D001938:Brazil; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D005060:Europe; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000032:analysis; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D009656:North America; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D016973:Pectobacterium carotovorum / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D010568:Peru; D010802:Phylogeny; D011809:Quinones / Q000032:analysis; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D005227:Fatty Acids; D011809:Quinones; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S