Helical organisms with novel ultrastructural characteristics were isolated from the intestinal mucosa of rats and mice. These bacteria were characterized by the presence of 9 to 11 periplasmic fibers which appeared as concentric helical ridges on the surface of each cell. The cells were motile with a rapid corkscrewlike motion and had bipolar tufts of 10 to 14 sheathed flagella. The bacteria were microaerophilic, nutritionally fastidious, and physiologically similar to Helicobucter species and Wolinella succinogenes but could be differentiated from these organisms by their unique cellular ultrastructure. Using 16s rRNA sequencing, we found that strain STIT (T = type strain) was related to previously described Helicobucter species, "Flexispira rappini," and W . succinogenes. The closest relatives of strain STIT were Helicobacter mustelae and "F. rappini" (average similarity value, 96%). On the basis of phylogenetic data, strain STIT (= ATCC 49282T) represents a new species of the genus Helicobucter, for which we propose the name HeZicobucter muridarum.Bacteria with a variety of spiral morphologies are common inhabitants of the gastrointestinal tracts of both humans and animals (8-10, 20, 24-26, 30, 34, 39). Several of these spiral bacteria are helically coiled and possess bipolar tufts of flagella and concentric ridges that are due to periplasmic fibers that run the length of each cell. They have been seen in a variety of gastrointestinal preparations, including ceca (8) and ilea of rats (34), colons of mice (39), and gastric mucosa (26) and fundic glands of dogs and cats (20). Recently, organisms with a similar morphology have been implicated in ovine abortions (5, 21) and in intestinal diseases in animals and humans (1, 37).Much of the recent work on spiral bacteria has concentrated on Helicobacter pylori and other Campylobacter-like organisms because of the postulated association of these bacteria with human gastrointestinal disease (6,18,28,29). The taxonomy of this group of organisms is now being clarified. Recent phylogenetic work has resulted in the creation of the genus Helicobacter, and new species of this genus are rapidly being recognized (14, 17,32,33,36,40,43). Although three of the gastric helicobacters are very similar physiologically and show high degrees of similarity (96%) in their 16s rRNA sequences, these bacteria have very different morphologies (19,24,31). H. pylori is a relatively short organism with one or two turns in its spiral body, while Helicobacter musteleae is a short, slightly curved, rodshaped organism with an unusual flagellum configuration. In contrast, Helicobacter felis is 5 to 7 pm long and has a tightly spiralled body with five or six turns; it is entwined with a distinctive series of periplasmic fibers.The distinctive periplasmic fibers are not new to us because 10 years ago we observed similar structures on a bacterium isolated from a rat ileum (34). The same organism * Corresponding author.has been described previously in the elegant electron microscopic studies of Erland...