Erwinia teleogrylli sp. nov., a Bacterial Isolate Associated with a Chinese Cricket

A bacterial isolate (SCU-B244 T ) was obtained in China from crickets ( Teleogryllus occipitalis ) living in cropland deserted for approximately 10 years. The isolated bacteria were Gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic, oxidase-negative rods. A preliminary analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that the strain belongs to either the genus Erwinia or Pantoea . Analysis of multilocus sequence typing based on concatenated partial atpD , gyrB and infB gene sequences and physiological and biochemical characteristics indicated that the strain belonged to the genus Erwinia , as member of a new species as it was distinct from other known Erwinia species. Further analysis of the 16S rRNA gene showed SCU-B244 T to have 94.71% identity to the closest species of that genus, Erwinia oleae (DSM 23398 T ), which is below the threshold of 97% used to discriminate bacterial species. DNA-DNA hybridization results (5.78±2.52%) between SCU-B244 T and Erwinia oleae (DSM 23398 T ) confirmed that SCU-B244 T and Erwinia oleae (DSM 23398 T ) represent different species combined with average nucleotide identity values which range from 72.42% to 74.41. The DNA G+C content of SCU-B244 T was 55.32 mol%, which also differs from that of Erwinia oleae (54.7 to 54.9 mol%). The polyphasic taxonomic approach used here confirmed that the strain belongs to the Erwinia group and represents a novel species. The name Erwinia teleogrylli sp. nov. is proposed for this novel taxon, for which the type strain is SCU-B244 T (= CGMCC 1.12772 T = DSM 28222 T = KCTC 42022 T ).