AUTHOR=Brady Carrie , Kaur Sundeep , Crampton Bridget , Maddock Daniel , Arnold Dawn , Denman Sandra 

TITLE=Transfer of Erwinia toletana and Erwinia iniecta to a novel genus Winslowiella gen. nov. as Winslowiella toletana comb. nov. and Winslowiella iniecta comb. nov. and description of Winslowiella arboricola sp. nov., isolated from bleeding cankers on broadleaf hosts

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.1063107

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2022.1063107

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>Following a screening campaign of bleeding cankers of broadleaf hosts in Great Britain, numerous bacterial strains were isolated, identified by 16S rRNA and protein-coding gene sequencing and ultimately classified. During the course of the study, several Gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic strains were isolated from bleeding <italic>Platanus</italic> x <italic>acerifolia</italic> (London plane) and <italic>Tilia</italic> x <italic>europaea</italic> (common lime) cankers that could not be assigned to an existing species. Partial 16S rRNA gene sequencing placed these strains in the genus <italic>Erwinia</italic>, as a close phylogenetic relative of <italic>Erwinia toletana</italic>. In an effort to determine the taxonomic position of the strains, a polyphasic approach was followed including genotypic, genomic, phenotypic, and chemotaxonomic assays. Multilocus sequence analysis based on four protein-coding genes (<italic>gyrB</italic>, <italic>rpoB</italic>, <italic>infB</italic>, and <italic>atpD</italic>) confirmed the phylogenetic position of the strains as a novel taxon of subgroup 3 of the genus <italic>Erwinia</italic>, along with <italic>E. toletana</italic> and <italic>E. iniecta</italic>, and furthermore, provided support for their reclassification in a novel genus. Whole genome comparisons allowed the delimitation of the novel species and also supported the proposed transfer of subgroup 3 species to a novel genus in the <italic>Erwiniaeae</italic>. Phenotypically the novel species could be differentiated from <italic>E. toletana</italic> and <italic>E. iniecta</italic>, and the novel genus could be differentiated from the closely related genera <italic>Erwinia</italic> and <italic>Mixta</italic>. Therefore, we propose (1) the reclassification of <italic>E. toletana</italic> and <italic>E. iniecta</italic> in a novel genus, <italic>Winslowiella</italic> gen. nov., as <italic>Winslowiella toletana</italic> comb. nov. and <italic>Winslowiella iniecta</italic> comb. nov., with <italic>W. toletana</italic> comb. nov. as the type species (type strain A37<sup>T</sup> = CFBP 6631<sup>T</sup> = ATCC 700880<sup>T</sup> = CECT 5263<sup>T</sup>), and (2) classification of the novel strains as <italic>Winslowiella arboricola</italic> sp. nov. (type strain BAC 15a-03b<sup>T</sup> = LMG 32576<sup>T</sup> = NCPPB 4696<sup>T</sup>).</p>