A new species of entomopathogenic bacteria
A new species of entomopathogenic bacteria was isolated from an entomopathogenic nematode, Steinernema aciari is now called as Xenorhabdus ishibashii. Based on molecular analysis this new bacterium I believe was named after a famous Japanese nematologist, Dr. N. Ishibashi as Xenorhabdus ishibashii (Kuwata et al., 2013). Infective juveniles of Steinernematid nematodes generally carry species specific symbiotic bacteria (Xenorhabdus spp.) in their gut and use them as weapons to kill their insect hosts. Phylogenetic analysis and sequence similarity of 16S rRNA gene showed that the new bacteria that isolated from both chinese and Japanese isolates of Steinernema aciari was belonged to the genus Xenorhabdus. Molecular analysis of protein sequences showed that this newly isolated bacterium was closely related to two other entomopathogenic bacteria called Xenorhabdus ehlersii (mutualistically associated with an entomopathogenic nematode, Steinernema serratum) and Xenorhabdus griffiniae (mutualistically associated with an entomopathogenic nematode, Steinernema hermaphroditum). However, Xenorhabdus ishibashii is considred new species because its protein sequence showed less than 97% similarity with the protein sequences of above stated two closely related entomopathogenic bacteria.
Literature:
Kuwata, R., Qiu, L.H., Wang, W., Harada, Y., Yoshida, M., (Yoshida, Kondo, E. and Yoshiga, T. 2013. Xenorhabdus ishibashii sp nov., isolated from the entomopathogenic nematode Steinemema aciari. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 63: 1690-1695.
Lengyel, K., Lang, E., Fodor, A., Szallas, E., Schumann, P. andStackebrandt, E. 2007. Description of four novel species of Xenorhabdus, family Enterobacteriaceae: Xenorhabdus budapestensis sp. nov., Xenorhabdus ehlersii sp. nov., Xenorhabdus innexi sp. nov., and Xenorhabdus szentirmaii sp. nov. Systematic and Applied Microbiology 28: 115-122.
Tailliez, P., Pages, S., Ginibre, N. and Boemare, N. 2006. New insight into diversity in the genus Xenorhabdus, including the description of ten novel species. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 56: 2805-2818.