Poultry, Fisheries & Wildlife Sciences
Open Access

Abstract

Differentiation of Corynebacterium uropygiale strains from Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) and Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo)

Michael Zhang, Ming Yang, Dale Rollins and Shuping Zhang

Genetic and biochemical characterizations were performed on the bacterial isolates from the intestinal contents of the Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) in western Texas, USA. The bobwhite bacterial isolates were Gramstain-positive, non-acid fast, catalase-positive, oxidase-negative and non-spore forming rods. The 16S rRNA gene sequences of the bobwhite isolates were identical and showed the highest sequence similarity to Corynebacterium uropygiale (99%) isolated from the wild captive turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) in Germany.
Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequences and the rpoB gene sequences suggested that bobwhite strains belong to Corynebacterium uropygiale. However, DNA-DNA hybridization showed 76.5% relatedness between bobwhite DSM 101879T and C. uropygiale DSM 46817T, indicating that Bobwhite and Turkey strains may represent different subspecies of C. uropygiale. The genetic separation is supported by the distinct biochemical properties of bobwhite and turkey strains. Compared to turkey strains, bobwhite strains have no pyrazinamidase and alkaline phosphatase activities, do not ferment mannitol, and have lower content of fatty acids C18:1 ω9c (27.8%) and 18:0 10-methyl, TBSA (1.0%). To reflect the origin of isolation, the name Corynebacterium uropygiale subsp. colini subsp. nov. is proposed for bobwhite isolates. The type strain is DSM 101879T (=KCTC 49003T).