Paracholeplasma manati sp. nov. isolated from Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris).

Abstract

Four novel strains of a member of the genus Paracholeplasma (OakleyT, Holly, Lorelei and Ariel) were isolated from skin of Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris). These strains were phenotypically and genetically characterized and compared with the known species of the genera Acholeplasma (A.), Alteracholeplasma (Al.), Haploplasma (H.), Paracholeplasma (P.) and Mariniplasma (M.). All the strains produced acid from glucose but did not hydrolyze arginine or urea. All were propagated in ambient air supplemented with 5±1 % CO2 at 35-37 °C using SP4-Z, Columbia and brain-heart infusion medium. Colonies on solid medium showed a typical fried-egg appearance and transmission electron microscopy revealed a typical mycoplasma-like cellular morphology. The results of phylogenetic analyses based on partial 16S rRNA, rpoB, gyrB and parE gene sequences and the whole proteome data indicated that the novel species is a unique species but phylogenetically closely related to Paracholeplasma vituli, Paracholeplasma morum and 'Paracholeplasma brassicae'. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain OakleyT and the closely related species were significantly lower than the accepted thresholds for describing novel prokaryotic species at the genomic level. On the basis of the genomic, phenotypic and phylogenetic properties, the novel strains represent a novel species of the genus Paracholeplasma, for which the name Paracholeplasma manati sp. nov. with the type strain OakleyT (=NCTC 14352T =DSM 110686T) is proposed. The genomic DNA G+C content and complete draft genome size for the type strain are 38.35 % and 1 873 856 bp, respectively.