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Updated: Jul 19, 2025

Identification of Rare Bacterial Pathogens by 16S rRNA Gene Sequencing and MALDI-TOF MS
Published on: July 11, 2016
Corynebacterium ramonii sp. nov., a novel toxigenic member of the Corynebacterium diphtheriae species complex
Chiara Crestani1, Gabriele Arcari2, Annie Landier1
1Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Biodiversity and Epidemiology of Bacterial Pathogens, Paris, France.
Abstract:
The Corynebacterium diphtheriae species complex comprises seven bacterial species, including Corynebacterium ulcerans, a zoonotic pathogen from multiple animal species. In this work, we characterise phenotypically and genotypically isolates belonging to two C. ulcerans lineages. Results from phylogenetic analyses, in silico DNA-DNA hybridization (DDH) and MALDI-TOF spectra differentiate lineage 2 from C. ulcerans lineage 1, which, together with their distinct transmission dynamics (probable human-to-human vs animal-to-human), indicates that lineage 2 is a separate Corynebacterium species, which we propose to name Corynebacterium ramonii. This species is of particular medical interest considering that its human-to-human transmission is likely, and that some C. ramonii isolates carry the diphtheria toxin gene.
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