Alicyclobacillus consociatus sp. nov., isolated from a human clinical specimen

A Gram-stain-positive, aerobic organism, isolated from a blood sample from a 51-year-old woman, was studied for its taxonomic position. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity comparisons, strain CCUG 53762(T) was grouped into the genus Alicyclobacillus, most closely related to the type strain of Alicyclobacillus pohliae (94.7 %). The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to other species of the genus Alicyclobacillus was ≤91 % and similarity to species of the genus Tumebacillus was 91.3-93 %. The occurrence of menaquinone MK-7 as the major respiratory quinone, meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid of the cell wall and the fatty acid profile supported the allocation of the strain to the genus Alicyclobacillus. Major fatty acids were iso- and anteiso-branched fatty acids. The polar lipid profile consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and three unknown phospholipids. The absence of the iso-branched fatty acids iso-C16 : 0 and iso-C17 : 0 allowed differentiation of strain CCUG 53762(T) from A. pohliae CIP 109385(T). In addition, the results of physiological and biochemical tests also allowed phenotypic differentiation of strain CCUG 53762(T) from this most closely related species. The G+C content of the DNA was 47 mol%. Strain CCUG 53762(T) therefore represents a novel species of the genus Alicyclobacillus, for which we propose the name Alicyclobacillus consociatus sp. nov., with CCUG 53762(T) ( = CCM 8439(T)) as the type strain.