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Helicobacter baculiformis sp. nov., isolated from feline stomach mucosa

¹ Department of Pathology, Bacteriology and Avian Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium
² Department of Biochemistry, Physiology and Microbiology, Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
³ Institute of Microbiology and Parasitology, Veterinary Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Gerbiceva 60, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
⁴ CODA – CERVA – VAR, Groeselenberg 99, B-1180 Brussels, Belgium

Correspondence
M. Baele
Margo.Baele{at}UGent.be

A Gram-negative, microaerophilic slender rod, measuring approximately 10 µm long and approximately 1 µm wide, isolated from the gastric mucosa of a cat and designated strain M50^T, was subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. Despite its apparent lack of helical coils, the organism showed a corkscrew-like motion by means of multiple sheathed flagella located at both ends of the cell and by a periplasmic fibril coiled around the body. Strain M50^T grew preferably on biphasic culture plates or on very moist agar. Coccoid forms predominated in cultures older than 4 days as well as in growth obtained on dry agar plates. The strain grew at 37 °C, but not at 25 or 42 °C and exhibited urease, oxidase and catalase activities. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, the novel isolate was identified as a member of the genus Helicobacter and showed about 98 to 99 % sequence similarity to Helicobacter felis, Helicobacter bizzozeronii, Helicobacter salomonis, Helicobacter cynogastricus and ‘Candidatus Helicobacter heilmannii’, five highly related species previously detected in the feline or canine gastric mucosa. Protein profiling of strain M50^T using SDS-PAGE revealed a pattern different from those of other Helicobacter species of mammalian gastric origin. Additionally, the urease and HSP60 gene sequences of strain M50^T were different from those of H. felis, H. bizzozeronii, H. salomonis, H. cynogastricus and ‘Ca. H. heilmannii’. It is thus proposed that strain M50^T (=LMG 23839^T=CCUG 53816^T) represents a novel species within this genus, for which the name Helicobacter baculiformis sp. nov. is proposed.

The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the 16S rRNA, partial ureAB and hsp60 gene sequences of H. baculiformis M50^T are EF070342, EF070343 and EF070344, respectively.

Supplementary tables showing the distance matrix values for the Helicobacter strains examined in this study based on 16S rRNA, ureAB and hsp60 gene sequences are available with the online version of this paper.