Fundicoccus, 2020

Siebert, Annemarie, Huptas, Christopher, Wenning, Mareike, Scherer, Siegfried & Doll, Etienne V., 2020, Fundicoccus ignavus gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel genus of the family Aerococcaceae isolated from bulk tank milk, International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 70 (8), pp. 4774-4781 : 4780

DESCRIPTION OF FUNDICOCCUS IGNAVUS GEN. NOV., SP. NOV.

Fundicoccus ignavus (ig.na’vus. L. masc. adj. ignavus inactive, referring to the lack of acid formation from carbohydrates).

Cells are circular-shaped (cocci) with an approximate size of 1–2µm. They occur as single cells and form pairs or chains. Cells are Gram-stain-positive, non-motile, non-endospore-forming, oxidase- and catalase-negative, and facultatively anaerobic. The isolates show strong α- haemolysis on 5% sheep blood agar. The optimal growth conditions are at 29–33 °C, pH 7.5–8.0 and 0.5–1% (w/v) NaCl. Growth occurs at 12–39 °C with one strain only growing up to 37 °C (WS5303). Strains grow at pH 6.5–9.5 and strain WS4937 T as well as WS4753 are able to grow in the presence of up to 6.5% (w/v) NaCl. Acid formation was not detected for any of the 47 carbohydrates tested with the API 50 CH system. Does not hydrolyse starch, gelatine or aesculin. Negative for the Voges–Proskauer test and indole production. Nitrate is not reduced. H 2 S is not detected. Positive for argininedihdyrolase, β -galactosidase activity (only with resorufin β -Dgalactopyranoside as substrate) and hydrolysis of hippurate. Alanyl-phenylalanyl-proline-arylamidase, alkaline phosphatase, β -glucuronidase, β -mannosidase, glycyl-tryptophanarylamidase, N -acetyl- β -glucosaminidase, pyroglutamic acid arylamidase and urease are not produced. α - Glucosidase is weakly positive for WS4937 T. The phenotype for amino acid catabolism was supported by genome data. Additionally, an orthologue of the alkaline phosphatase was detected which is not active under conditions used in phenotypic experiments. The production of β -glucosidase is variable but was detected for the type strain WS4937 T and strain WS5303.

The major fatty acids are C 16:1 ω9 с, C 16:0 and C 18:1 ω9 с. The polar lipid profile consists of three glycolipids, phospholipid, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphoglycolipid and diphosphatidylglycerol.

The type strain of Fundicoccus ignavus gen. nov., sp. nov. is WS4937 T (=DSM 109652 T =LMG 31441 T), which was isolated from raw milk of a farm bulk tank. The DNA G+C content of the type strain is 37.4mol% and the genome size is ~3.0 Mb. WS5303 (=DSM 109653=LMG 31442) and WS4759, two additional strains of the species were isolated from other bulk tank milk samples. Whole-genome sequences of WS4937 T, WS4759 and WS5303 can be accessed with WJQT00000000, WJQS00000000 and WJQR00000000, respectively.