Prevotella micans sp. nov., isolated from the human oral cavity

1 King's College London Dental Institute at Guy's, King's College and St Thomas' Hospitals, Infection Research Group, London SE1 9RT, UK 2 West China College of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, PR China 3 National Public Health Institute (KTL), Helsinki, FI-00300 Helsinki, Finland 4 Institute of Dentistry, University of Turku, FI-20520 Turku, Finland Correspondence William G. Wade william.wade{at}kcl.ac.uk Four strains of anaerobic Gram-negative bacilli isolated from the human mouth were characterized using a variety of phenotypic and genotypic tests. The strains were found to comprise a homogeneous group and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed them to be distinct from but related to a loose cluster of Prevotella species including Prevotella buccalis , Prevotella nanceiensis and Prevotella marshii . A novel species, Prevotella micans sp. nov., is proposed to accommodate these strains. Prevotella micans is saccharolytic and produces acetic, isovaleric and succinic acids and minor amounts of isobutyric acid as end products of fermentation. The G+C content of the DNA of the type strain is 46 mol%. The type strain of Prevotella micans is E7.56 T (=DSM 21469 T =CCUG 56105 T ). Abbreviations: PRAS, pre-reduced anaerobically sterilized The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the 16S rRNA gene sequences of Prevotella micans strains E7.56 T and 4D22 are AF481228 and EU562293 , respectively.