Draft genome and description of Merdibacter massiliensis gen. nov., sp. nov., a new bacterium genus isolated from the human ileum

We used phenotypic, genomic and phylogenetic information following the taxono-genomics approach to demonstrate that strain Marseille-P3254, isolated from an ileal sample of a 76-year old woman who underwent upper and lower digestive tract endoscopy for esophagitis and colonic polyp, is representative of a novel bacterial genus within the family Erysipelotrichaceae in the phylum Firmicutes. It is an anaerobic Gram-negative bacterium without catalase and oxidase activities. The genome of strain Marseille-P3254 is 2,468,496-bp long with a 40.1% G + C content. This new bacterium is most closely related to Eubacterium dolichum, with which it shares 90.7% 16S rRNA sequence similarity. In addition, genomic comparison using the digital DNA-DNA hybridization and OrthoANI analyses between the novel organism and the E. dolichum type strain revealed identities of 25.2 and 68.91%, respectively. The major fatty acids were C-16: 0, C-18: 1n9 and C-18: 0. Based on these data, we propose the creation of the new genus Merdibacter gen. nov., with strain Marseille-P3254(T) (=CSUR P3254 = DSM 103534) being the type strain of the new species Merdibacter massiliensis gen. nov., sp. nov.