Introducing clinical nanorachaeaology: Isolation by co-culture of sp. nov.

BACKGROUND

Nanoarchaeota, obligate symbiont of some environmental archaea with reduced genomes, have been described in marine thermal vent environments, yet never detected in hosts, including humans.

METHODS

Here, using laboratory tools geared towards the detection of nanoarchaea including PCR-sequencing, WGS, microscopy and culture.

RESULTS

We discovered a novel nanoarchaea, , detected in dental plate samples by specific PCR-based assays. Combining fluorescent hybridization (FISH) with scanning electron microscopy disclosed close contacts between and the archaea in these samples. Culturing one sample yielded co-isolation of and with a 606,935-bp genome, with 23.6% GC encoded 16 tRNA, 3 rRNA and 942 coding DNA sequences, of which 400 were assigned to clusters of orthologous groups.

CONCLUSION

The discovery of made publicly available in collection, extended our knowledge of human microbiota diversity, opening a new field of research in clinical microbiology here referred to as clinical nanoarchaeology.