Leucobacter manosquensis sp. nov.-A Novel Bacterial Species Isolated from Healthy Human Skin

Extending our knowledge on human skin microbiota is a challenge to better decipher its role in health and disease. Using the culturomics method, we isolated strain Marseille-Q4368 from the healthy forehead of a 59-year-old woman. We describe here the main characteristics of this bacterium using a taxonogenomic approach. This new bacterial species is Gram-positive, non-motile, and non-spore-forming. Its 16S rRNA sequence exhibited a similarity of 99.59% with Leucobacter chromiiresistens, the most closely related species in terms of nomenclature. However, a digital DNA-DNA hybridization analysis between these two species revealed a maximum identity similarity of only 27.5%. We found phenotypical and genomic differences between strain Marseille-Q4368 and its closely related species. These findings underscore the classification of this bacterium as a distinct species. Hence, we propose the name Leucobacter manosquensis sp. nov. strain Marseille-Q4368 (=CSUR Q4368 = DSM 112403) for this newly identified bacterial species.