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Nocardia vulneris sp. nov., isolated from wounds of human patients in North America

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Abstract

Nocardia species are ubiquitous in the environment with an increasing number of species isolated from clinical sources. From 2005 to 2009, eight isolates (W9042, W9247, W9290, W9319, W9846, W9851T, W9865, and W9908) were obtained from eight patients from three states in the United States and Canada; all were from males ranging in age from 47 to 81 years old; and all were obtained from finger (n = 5) or leg (n = 3) wounds. Isolates were characterized by polyphasic analysis using molecular, phenotypic, morphologic and chemotaxonomic methods. Sequence analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed the eight isolates are 100 % identical to each other and belong in the genus Nocardia. The nearest phylogenetically related neighbours were found to be the type strains for Nocardia altamirensis (99.33 % sequence similarity), Nocardia brasiliensis (99.37 %), Nocardia iowensis (98.95 %) and Nocardia tenerifensis (98.44 %). The G+C content of isolate W9851T was determined to be 68.4 mol %. The DNA–DNA relatedness between strain W9851T and the N. brasiliensis type strain was 72.8 % and 65.8 % when measured in the laboratory and in silico from genome sequences, respectively, and 95.6 % ANI. Whole-cell peptidoglycan was found to contain meso-diaminopimelic acid; MK-8-(H4)ω-cyc was identified as the major menaquinone; the major fatty acids were identified as C16:0, 10 Me C18:0, and C18:1 w9c, the predominant phospholipids were found to include diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylinositol mannosides; whole-cell sugars detected were arabinose and galactose; and mycolic acids ranging from 38 to 60 carbon atoms were found to be present. These chemotaxonomic analyses are consistent with assignment of the isolates to the genus Nocardia. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectra of the clinical isolates showed genus and species level profiles that were different from other Nocardia species. All isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin, clarithromycin and imipenem but were susceptible to amikacin, amoxicillin/clavulanate, linezolid and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. The results of our polyphasic analysis suggest the new isolates obtained from wound infections represent a novel species within the genus Nocardia, for which the name Nocardia vulneris sp. nov. is proposed, with strain W9851T (= DSM 45737T = CCUG 62683T = NBRC 108936T) as the type strain.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Jean Euzéby for nomenclatural advice and Gabi Pötter (DSMZ) for help in chemotaxonomic analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bacterial Special Pathogens Branch, Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Disease, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Building 17, Room 2025, Mailstop G-11, 1600 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA, 30333, USA

    Brent A. Lasker, Melissa Bell & June M. Brown

  2. Leibniz-Institute DSMZ - German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, 38124, Brunswick, Germany

    Hans-Peter Klenk, Cathrin Spröer & Peter Schumann

Authors
  1. Brent A. Lasker
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  2. Melissa Bell
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  3. Hans-Peter Klenk
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  4. Cathrin Spröer
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  5. Peter Schumann
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  6. June M. Brown
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Correspondence to Brent A. Lasker.

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10482_2014_226_MOESM1_ESM.pptx

Supplementary material 1 Fig. S1 Neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree of aligned 16S rRNA gene sequences showing the position of the eight clinical isolates to validly named type strains within the genus Nocardia. Bootstrap percentages are shown based on 1,000 replications; only values ≥50 are shown. The tree was rooted using the sequence of Mycobacteriun tuberculosis ATCC 27294T as the outgroup. Bar, 0.005 substitutions per nucleotide position (PPTX 78 kb)

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Lasker, B.A., Bell, M., Klenk, HP. et al. Nocardia vulneris sp. nov., isolated from wounds of human patients in North America. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 106, 543–553 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-014-0226-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-014-0226-0

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