Hugonella massiliensis gen. nov., sp. nov., genome sequence, and description of a new strictly anaerobic bacterium isolated from the human gut.

The human gut is composed of a large diversity of microorganisms, which have been poorly described. Here, using culturomics, a new concept based on the variation in culture conditions and MALDI-TOF MS identification, we proceed to explore the microbial diversity of the complex ecosystem of the human gut. Using this approach, we isolated strain AT8 (=CSUR P2118 =  DSM 101782) from stool specimens collected from a 51-year-old obese French woman. Strain AT8 is a strictly anaerobic, nonmotile, nonspore-forming gram-positive coccus that do not exhibit catalase and oxidase activities. 16S rDNA-based identification of strain AT8 demonstrated 92% gene sequence similarity with Eggerthella lenta DSM 2243, the phylogenetically closed validly named type species. Here, we present a set of features for the strain AT8 and the description of its complete genome sequence and annotation. The 2,091,845 bp long genome has a G+C content of 63.46% and encodes1,849 predicted genes; 1,781 were protein-coding genes, and 68 were RNAs. On the basis of the characteristics reported here, we propose the creation of a new bacterial genus Hugonella gen. nov., belonging to the Eggerthellaceae family and including Hugonella massiliensis gen. nov., sp. nov., strain AT8 as the type strain.