Spiroplasma turonicum sp. nov. from Haematopota horse flies (Diptera: Tabanidae) in France

Abstract

Strain Tab4cT, a helical prokaryote that was isolated from the body of a Haematopota sp. fly collected in Champchevrier, Indre-et-Loire, Touraine, France, was found to be a member of the class Mollicutes. The cells of strain Tab4cT were small, motile helices that were devoid of a cell wall. The organism passed through filters with mean pore diameters as small as 0.20 mm. Strain Tab4cT grew rapidly in liquid SP-4 medium a t both 30 and 37 "C. The organism fermented glucose but did not hydrolyse arginine or urea, and did not require serum for growth. In preliminary electrophoretic analyses, the cell protein patterns of strain Tab4cT were distinct from those of 14 other spiroplasmas found in mosquitoes, deer flies and horse flies from Europe and the Far-East. In reciprocal metabolism inhibition and deformation serological tests, employing antigens and antisera representative of spiroplasma groups I-XXXIII (including all sub-groups), plus ungrouped strains BARC 1901 and BARC 2649, no serological relationship with Tab4cT was found. The G+C content of the DNA of strain Tab4cT was about 2521 m o l % and its genome size was 1.305 kbp. It is proposed that spiroplasma strain Tab4cT be assigned to group XVll (presently vacant) and that strain (ATCC 7002713 is the type strain of a new species, Spiroplasma turonicum.Keywords: Spiroplasma turonicum sp. nov., Mollicutes, Diptera INTRODUCTIONA large number of spiroplasmas have been isolated from horse flies and deer flies in both the USA (5)(6)(7)(8)11,(22)(23)(24)(25) and France (4,9,13, 14).In general, tabanid spiroplasmas exhibit a considerable degree of biodiversity within the genus Spiroplasma, class Mollicutes, and recently a number of North American tabanid spiroplasmas were described as new species (7,11,23,24). This was accompanied by the Abbreviations: CCU, colour-changing units; DF, deformation; MI, metabolism inhibition; TEM, transmission electron microscopy. definition of new groups and sub-groups (22) and required a complete revision of the group classification of spiroplasmas (28). Moreover, several other strains, including some isolated from France (13, 14), remain to be fully characterized. On the basis of previous attempts to classify members of the genus Spiroplasma, serological analysis has been a prominent criterion (28). The validity for a number of proposed species designations has been confirmed by DNA-DNA hybridization data and 16s rDNA sequence analysis (28). However, until sequence data are available for representatives of all spiroplasma groups and subgroups, phenotypic characters, including serological data, will provide the most logical basis for construction of polyphasic classifications. isolates (20). One of these, strain Tab4cT, proved to be unrelated to spiroplasmas belonging to previously described groups. In this paper, we present the results of studies that fulfil the proposed minimal criteria (10) for description of new species of the class Mollicutes. Therefore, we propose that strain Tab4cT (= ATCC 700271T) be recognized as the type str...

Horizontal Gene Acquisitions Contributed to Genome Expansion in Insect-Symbiotic Spiroplasma clarkii

“…1996 ; Whitcomb et al. 1997 ; Hélias et al. 1998 ) revealed that the PFGE method typically overestimates the genome size by ∼10–15%.…”

Complete Genome Sequence of Spiroplasma turonicum Tab4c T , a Bacterium Isolated from Horse Flies ( Haematopota sp.)

“…horse flies. The type strain Tab4c T was isolated from a single fly, probably Haematopota pluvialis , collected at Champchevrier (Indre-et-Loire, Touraine, France) in 1991 and was assigned to group XVII within the genus ( 1 ). As part of our ongoing effort to investigate Spiroplasma genome evolution ( 2 ), we determined the complete genome sequence of S. turonicum Tab4c T .…”

Complete Genome Sequence of Spiroplasma turonicum Strain Tab4c T , a Parasite of a Horse Fly, Haematopota sp. (Diptera: Tabanidae)

“…Here, we report the complete nucleotide sequence of the circular chromosome of S. turonicum strain Tab4c T (American Type Culture Collection, ATCC 700271), which was isolated in axenic culture from a Haematopota sp. fly in France ( 6 ). Genomic DNA was extracted from a culture of S. turonicum Tab4c T grown in liquid M1D broth medium, as previously described ( 12 ).…”