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Porphyromonas uenonis sp. nov., a Pathogen for Humans Distinct from P. asaccharolytica and P. endodontalis

Sydney M. Finegold,^1,2,3* Marja-Liisa Vaisanen,⁴ Merja Rautio,⁵ Erkki Eerola,⁶ Paula Summanen,⁴ Denise Molitoris,⁴ Yuli Song,⁴ Chengxu Liu,⁴ and Hannele Jousimies-Somer^5,

Infectious Diseases Section,¹ Research Service, Veterans Affairs Medical Center West Los Angeles,⁴ Department of Medicine,² Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California,³ Department of Medical Microbiology, Turku University, Turku,⁶ Department of Bacteriology Anaerobe Reference Laboratory, National Public Health Institute (KTL), Helsinki, Finland⁵

Received 24 December 2003/ Returned for modification 12 March 2004/ Accepted 15 July 2004

Three Porphyromonas species (Porphyromonas asaccharolytica, P. endodontalis, and the novel species that is the subject of the present report, P. uenonis) are very much alike in terms of biochemical characteristics, such as enzyme profiles and cellular fatty acid contents. P. asaccharolytica is distinguished from the other two species by virtue of production of -fucosidase and glyoxylic acid positivity. The novel species is difficult to differentiate from P. endodontalis phenotypically and was designated a P. endodontalis-like organism for some time. However, P. endodontalis is recovered almost exclusively from oral sources and also grows poorly on Biolog Universal Agar, both characteristics that are in contrast to those of the other two organisms. Furthermore, P. uenonis is glycerol positive in the Biolog AN Microplate system. Both P. asaccharolytica and P. uenonis are positive by 13 other tests in the Biolog system, whereas P. endodontalis is negative by all of these tests. P. asaccharolytica grew well in both solid and liquid media without supplementation with 5% horse serum, whereas the other two species grew poorly without supplementation. Sequencing of 16S rRNA revealed about 10% divergence between the novel species and P. endodontalis but less than 2% sequence difference between the novel species and P. asaccharolytica. Subsequent DNA-DNA hybridization studies documented that the novel organism was indeed distinct from P. asaccharolytica. We propose the name Porphyromonas uenonis for the novel species. We have recovered P. uenonis from four clinical infections in adults, all likely of intestinal origin, and from the feces of six children.

Deceased.

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