Corynebacterium crudilactis sp. nov., isolated from raw cow's milk

A Gram-stain-positive, rod-shaped bacterium (strain JZ16T) was isolated from raw cow's milk from the bulk tank of a dairy farm in Germany. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of the isolate showed a similarity of 98.3 % to the nearest related type strain Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032T, a similarity of 97.6 % to Corynebacterium deserti GIMN1.010T and a similarity of 97.4 % to Corynebacterium callunae DSM 20147T. Determination of chemotaxonomic characteristics revealed oleic acid (18 : 1 cis 9) as the predominant fatty acid, major amounts of hexadecanoic acid (16 : 0) and minor amounts of heptadecanoic acid (17 : 0). The isolate showed an acetyl type of peptidoglycan and corynemycolic acids. The menaquinones MK-8(H2) and MK-9(H2) and the phospholipids diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylinositol mannoside were detected, which was in agreement with the description of the genus Corynebacterium. Strain JZ16T was positive for reduction of nitrate to nitrite, pyrazinamidase, β-glucuronidase, β-glucosidase and urease activities. Acid was produced from d-glucose, d-ribose and d-mannitol, but not from d-xylose, maltose, lactose, sucrose and glycogen. The results of phylogenetic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic analyses enabled the differentiation of the isolated strain from other closely related species of the genus Corynebacterium. Therefore, strain JZ16T represents a novel species of the genus Corynebacterium, for which the name Corynebacterium crudilactis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is JZ16T (=DSM 100882T=CCUG 69192T=LMG 29813T).