Erwinia teleogrylli sp. nov., a Bacterial Isolate Associated with a Chinese Cricket

A bacterial isolate (SCU-B244(T)) was obtained in China from crickets (Teleogryllus occipitalis) living in cropland deserted for approximately 10 years. The isolated bacteria were Gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic, oxidase-negative rods. A preliminary analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that the strain belongs to either the genus Erwinia or Pantoea. Analysis of multilocus sequence typing based on concatenated partial atpD, gyrB and infB gene sequences and physiological and biochemical characteristics indicated that the strain belonged to the genus Erwinia, as member of a new species as it was distinct from other known Erwinia species. Further analysis of the 16S rRNA gene showed SCU-B244(T) to have 94.71% identity to the closest species of that genus, Erwinia oleae (DSM 23398(T)), which is below the threshold of 97% used to discriminate bacterial species. DNA-DNA hybridization results (5.78±2.52%) between SCU-B244(T) and Erwinia oleae (DSM 23398(T)) confirmed that SCU-B244(T) and Erwinia oleae (DSM 23398(T)) represent different species combined with average nucleotide identity values which range from 72.42% to 74.41. The DNA G+C content of SCU-B244(T) was 55.32 mol%, which also differs from that of Erwinia oleae (54.7 to 54.9 mol%). The polyphasic taxonomic approach used here confirmed that the strain belongs to the Erwinia group and represents a novel species. The name Erwinia teleogrylli sp. nov. is proposed for this novel taxon, for which the type strain is SCU-B244(T) (= CGMCC 1.12772(T) = DSM 28222(T) = KCTC 42022(T)).