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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1459401

Characterization of three novel Helicobacter species infecting stomachs of dogs and cat: Helicobacter gastrocanis sp. nov., Helicobacter gastrofelis sp. nov., and Helicobacter felistomachi sp. nov

Provisionally accepted
Emiko Rimbara Emiko Rimbara 1,2*Sae Aoki Sae Aoki 2Masato Suzuki Masato Suzuki 3Hirotaka Kobayashi Hirotaka Kobayashi 4Taisuke Nakagawa Taisuke Nakagawa 5Yuko Goto-Koshino Yuko Goto-Koshino 5Sachiyo Nomura Sachiyo Nomura 6Wan-Ying Du Wan-Ying Du 6Hidenori Matsui Hidenori Matsui 2Shigetarou Mori Shigetarou Mori 2Keigo Shibayama Keigo Shibayama 7Tsuyoshi Kenri Tsuyoshi Kenri 2Koichi Ohno Koichi Ohno 5
  • 1 National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID), Tokyo, Japan
  • 2 Department of Bacteriology II, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
  • 3 Antimicrobial Resistance Research Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID), Tokyo, Japan
  • 4 Department of Pathology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan
  • 5 Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan
  • 6 Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan
  • 7 Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Helicobacter species infecting the stomachs of dogs and cats are potentially pathogenic and have been isolated from patients with gastric diseases. In the present study conducted in Japan, among the nine Helicobacter strains that we isolated from dogs and cats, NHP19-003T from a dog, and strains NHP19-012T and NHP21-005T from cats were identified to be the strains most closely related to Helicobacter heilmannii ASB1T based on a 16S rRNA comparison (98.7 to 99.2% similarity with H. heilmannii ASB1T). However, none of their whole genomes showed more than average nucleotide identity (ANI) threshold value (95-96%) to any Helicobacter species (85.1%, 86.7% and 86.6% ANI, respectively, with H. heilmannii ASB1T), including when compared to each other. Furthermore, NHP19-003T, NHP19-012T, and NHP21-005T exhibited protein profiles different from known gastric Helicobacter species, as revealed by MALDI-TOF MS, indicating that they are novel Helicobacter species. We, thus, propose these novel Helicobacter species as follows: Helicobacter gastrocanis sp. nov. (type strain NHP19-003T [=JCM 39159T=DSM 111619T]), Helicobacter gastrofelis sp. nov. (type strain NHP19-012T [=JCM 39160T]) and Helicobacter felistomachi sp. nov. (type strain NHP21-005T [=JCM 39513T]). These novel strains have respective GC content values of 48.3%, 46.9%, and 47.1%. Phylogenetic analysis based on ureAB gene sequences obtained from gastric specimens from 47 dogs and 24 cats in Japan revealed that 29.8% of dogs were infected with H. gastrocanis, while H. gastrofelis infected 44.7% of dogs and 12.5% of cats. Additionally, 10.6% of dogs and 20.8% of cats were infected with H. felistomachi. Animal experiments have confirmed that these three novel species elicit gastric inflammatory responses. This study findings reveal the prevalence of novel gastric Helicobacter species in dogs and cats in Japan and their pathogenicity.

    Keywords: Gastric Helicobacter species, Cats, Dogs, Novel species, gastric disease

    Received: 04 Jul 2024; Accepted: 18 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Rimbara, Aoki, Suzuki, Kobayashi, Nakagawa, Goto-Koshino, Nomura, Du, Matsui, Mori, Shibayama, Kenri and Ohno. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Emiko Rimbara, National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID), Tokyo, Japan

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