2025/03/10 by José A. Vázquez‐Boland, Jorge Val‐Calvo, Fabien Duquesne +4 · 1 voice · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Medicine · #Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies #Infections and bacterial resistance #Infectious Disease Case Reports and Treatments
paper · doi:10.1099/ijsem.0.006679
openalex publication_date 2025/03/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
A corrigendum of this article has been published full details can be found at 10.1099/ijsem.0.007033 We present the description of the new species, Rhodococcus parequi , found during phylogenomic investigations of a global collection of strains identified as Rhodococcus ( Prescottella ) equi . Strain PAM 2766 T was isolated from horse-breeding farm soil in Normandy, France, and was indistinguishable from R. equi based on the usual identification tests. Whole-genome phylogenetic analyses located PAM 2766 T in the same Rhodococcus sublineage as R. equi , together with Rhodococcus agglutinans , Rhodococcus defluvii , Rhodococcus soli , Rhodococcus subtropicus , Rhodococcus spongiicola and Rhodococcus xishaensis . PAM 2766 T is most closely related to, but sufficiently distinct from, R. equi DSM 20307 T to be considered a separate species. The average nt identity (ANI) and average aa identity (AAI) values are 88.60% and 92.35, respectively, well below the species cutoff. The PAM 2766 T draft genome is ~5.3 Mb in size with 68.98% G+C mol content. PAM 2766 T is strictly aerobic and non-motile and produces smooth, creamy to buff-coloured colonies very similar to those of R. equi . It phenotypically differs from the latter by the ability to grow at 5 °C, a strongly positive urease test at 24 h and specificities in the carbon and nitrogen source utilization profile as determined by phenotype microarray screens. Our data indicate that PAM 2766 T belongs to a novel species, for which the name Rhodococcus parequi sp. nov. is proposed. R. parequi was avirulent in macrophage infection assays and is assumed to be non-pathogenic. The type strain is PAM 2766 T (=CETC 30995 T =NCTC 14987 T ).