AUTHOR=Brady Carrie , Crampton Bridget , Kaur Sundeep , Maddock Daniel , Kile Helene , Arnold Dawn , Denman Sandra 

TITLE=Two novel Raoultella species associated with bleeding cankers of broadleaf hosts, Raoultella scottia sp. nov. and Raoultella lignicola sp. nov.

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2024.1386923

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2024.1386923

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>Seventeen Gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic bacterial strains were isolated from bleeding cankers of various broadleaf hosts and oak rhizosphere soil in Great Britain. The strains were tentatively identified as belonging to the genus <italic>Raoultella</italic> based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA), based on four protein-encoding genes (<italic>fusA</italic>, <italic>leuS</italic>, <italic>pyrG</italic>, and <italic>rpoB</italic>), separated the strains into three clusters within the <italic>Raoultella</italic> genus clade. The majority of strains clustered with the type strain of <italic>Raoultella terrigena</italic>, with the remaining strains divided into two clusters with no known type strain. Whole genome sequencing comparisons confirmed these two clusters of strains as belonging to two novel <italic>Raoultella</italic> species which can be differentiated phenotypically from their current closest phylogenetic relatives. Therefore, two novel species are proposed: <italic>Raoultella scottia</italic> sp. nov. (type strain = BAC 10a-01-01<sup>T</sup> = LMG 33072<sup>T</sup> = CCUG 77096<sup>T</sup>) and <italic>Raoultella lignicola</italic> sp. nov. (type strain = TW_WC1a.1<sup>T</sup> = LMG 33073<sup>T</sup> = CCUG 77094<sup>T</sup>).</p>