title: Reclassification of four Polynucleobacter necessarius strains as representatives of Polynucleobacter asymbioticus comb. nov., Polynucleobacter duraquae sp. nov., Polynucleobacter yangtzensis sp. nov. and Polynucleobacter sinensis sp. nov., and emended description of Polynucleobacter necessarius.
abstract: Genome comparisons based on average nucleotide identity (ANI) values of four strains currently classified as Polynucleobacter necessarius subsp. asymbioticus resulted in ANI values of 75.7-78.4 %, suggesting that each of those strains represents a separate species. The species P. necessarius was proposed by Heckmann and Schmidt in 1987 to accommodate obligate endosymbionts of ciliates affiliated with the genus Euplotes. The required revision of this species is, however, hampered by the fact, that this species is based only on a description and lacks a type strain available as pure culture. Furthermore, the ciliate culture Euplotes aediculatus ATCC 30859, on which the description of the species was based, is no longer available. We found another Euplotes aediculatus culture (Ammermann) sharing the same origin with ATCC 30859 and proved the identity of the endosymbionts contained in the two cultures. A multilocus sequence comparison approach was used to estimate if the four strains currently classified as Polynucleobacternecessarius subsp. asymbioticus share ANI values with the endosymbiont in the Ammermann culture above or below the threshold for species demarcation. A significant correlation (R2 0.98, P<0.0001) between multilocus sequence similarity and ANI values of genome-sequenced strains enabled the prediction that it is highly unlikely that these four strains belong to the species P. necessarius. We propose reclassification of strains QLW-P1DMWA-1T (=DSM 18221T=CIP 109841T), MWH-MoK4T (=DSM 21495T=CIP 110977T), MWH-JaK3T (=DSM 21493T=CIP 110976T) and MWH-HuW1T (=DSM 21492T=CIP 110978T) as Polynucleobacter asymbioticus comb. nov., Polynucleobacter duraquae sp. nov., Polynucleobacter yangtzensis sp. nov. and Polynucleobacter sinensis sp. nov., respectively.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Limnology, University of Innsbruck, Mondseestrasse 9, A-5310 Mondsee, Austria.
authors.forename: Martin W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Hahn
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Limnology, University of Innsbruck, Mondseestrasse 9, A-5310 Mondsee, Austria.
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Limnology, University of Innsbruck, Mondseestrasse 9, A-5310 Mondsee, Austria.
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pitt
authors.affiliation: Lammi Biological Station, University of Helsinki, Pääjärventie 320, 16900 Lammi, Finland.
authors.forename: Sami J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Taipale
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institut DSMZ-Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH, Inhoffenstraße 7B, D-38124 Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Elke
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lang
mesh_terms: D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D001482:Base Composition; D042521:Burkholderiaceae / Q000145:classification*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012338:RNA, Ribosomal, 23S / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D005227:Fatty Acids; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D012338:RNA, Ribosomal, 23S