<i>Burkholderia puraquae</i> sp. nov., a novel species of the <i>Burkholderia cepacia</i> complex isolated from hospital settings and agricultural soils

Abstract

Bacteria from the <i>Burkholderia cepacia</i> complex (Bcc) are capable of causing severe infections in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). These opportunistic pathogens are also widely distributed in natural and man-made environments. After a 12-year epidemiological surveillance involving Bcc bacteria from respiratory secretions of Argentinean patients with CF and from hospital settings, we found six isolates of the Bcc with a concatenated species-specific allele sequence that differed by more than 3% from those of the Bcc with validly published names. According to the multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA), these isolates clustered with the agricultural soil strain, <i>Burkholderia</i> sp. PBP 78, which was already deposited in the PubMLST database. The isolates were examined using a polyphasic approach, which included 16S rRNA, <i>recA</i>, Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS), DNA base composition, average nucleotide identities (ANIs), fatty acid profiles, and biochemical characterizations. The results of the present study demonstrate that the seven isolates represent a single novel species within the Bcc, for which the name <i>Burkholderia puraquae</i> sp. nov. is proposed. <i>Burkholderia puraquae</i> sp. nov. CAMPA 1040^T (=LMG 29660^T=DSM 103137^T) was designated the type strain of the novel species, which can be differentiated from other species of the Bcc mainly from <i>recA</i> gene sequence analysis, MLSA, ANIb, MALDI-TOF MS analysis, and some biochemical tests, including the ability to grow at 42 ºC, aesculin hydrolysis, and lysine decarboxylase and β-galactosidase activities.