Human breast milk contains lactic acid bacteria (LAB), which have an important influence on the composition of the intestinal microbia of infants. In this study, one strain of an α-hemolytic species of the genus Streptococcus, IMAU99199T, isolated from the breast milk of a healthy nursing mother in Hohhot city PR China, was studied to characterise its taxonomic status using phenotypic and molecular taxonomic methods. The results indicated that it represented a member of the mitis-suis clade, pneumoniae subclade of the genus Streptococcus. It is a Gram-stain-positive, catalase-negative and oxidase-negative bacterium, and the cells are globular, paired or arranged in short chains. The results of a phylogenetic analysis of its 16S rRNA gene and two housekeeping genes (gyrB and rpoB) placed it in the genus Streptococcus. A phylogenetic tree based on 135 single-copy genes sequences indicated that IMAU99199T formed a closely related branch well separated from 'Streptococcus humanilactis' IMAU99125, 'Streptococcus bouchesdurhonensis' Marseille Q6994, Streptococcus mitis NCTC 12261T, 'Streptococcus vulneris' DM3B3, Streptococcus toyakuensis TP1632T, Streptococcus pseudopneumoniae ATCC BAA-960T and Streptococcus pneumoniae NCTC 7465T. IMAU99199T and 'S. humanilactis' IMAU99125 had the highest average nucleotide identity (93.7 %) and digital DNA-DNA hybridisation (55.3 %) values, which were below the accepted thresholds for novel species. The DNA G+C content of the draft genome of IMAU99199T was 39.8 %. The main cellular fatty acids components of IMAU99199T were C16 : 0 and C16 : 1ω7. It grew at a temperature range of 25-45 °C (the optimum growth temperature was 37 °C) and a pH range of 5.0-8.0 (the optimum growth pH was 7.0). These data indicate that strain IMAU99199T represents a novel species in the genus Streptococcus, for which the name Streptococcus hohhotensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is IMAU99199T (=GDMCC 1.1874T=KCTC 21155T).
Keywords: Streptococcus; Streptococcus hohhotensis sp. nov.; breast milk; novel species.