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Nocardia crassostreae sp. nov., the causal agent of nocardiosis in Pacific oysters

Carolyn S. Friedman^1,, Blaine L. Beaman², Jongsik Chun³, Michael Goodfellow³, Arthur Gee⁴ and Ronald P. Hedrick¹

¹Department of Medicine and Epidemiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
², and Department of Medical Microbiology, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
³Department of Microbiology, The Medical School, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4HH, UK
⁴Natural Sciences Division, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA 98447, USA

Author for correspondence: Carolyn S. Friedman. Tel: +1 707 875 2067. Fax: + 1 707 875 2009. e-mail: csfriedman{at}ucdavis.edu

ABSTRACT

Seven strains of bacteria were isolated from Pacific oysters, Crassostrea gigas, with a focal or systemic disease. The strains were aerobic, Gram-positive, acid-fast, produced a mycelium which fragmented into irregular rod-like elements, had a peptidoglycan containing meso-diaminopimelic acid, arabinose and galactose as major sugars, mycolic acids with 46-58 carbon atoms and G+C-rich DNA. All of these properties are consistent with the classification of the organisms in the genus Nocardia. A partial sequence of the 165 rRNA gene of isolate NB4H was determined following isolation and cloning of the PCR-amplified gene. The sequence was aligned with those of representative mycolic-acid-containing taxa and a phylogenetic tree was generated using the neighbour-joining method. It was evident from the phylogenetic tree that the three strains tested, RB1, OB3P and NB4H, were identical and belonged to the Nocardia otitidiscaviarum rRNA sub-group. The biochemical, chemical, morphological and physiological properties of the isolates were also essentially identical and served to distinguish them from representative nocardiae. It is, therefore, proposed that the strains isolated from the diseased Pacific oysters be assigned to a new species, Nocardia crassostreae. The type strain is NB4H (= ATCC 700418).

Key Words: Nocardia crassostreae sp. nov. • nocardiosis • Pacific oysters

The GenBank/EMBL accession numbers for the sequences reported in this paper are U92799, U92800 and Z37989.

Present address: Bodega Marine Laboratory, PO Box 247, Westside Road, Bodega Bay, CA 94923, USA.

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