Staphylococcus pettenkoferi, a novel staphylococcal species isolated from clinical specimens

In this report we describe a novel species of coagulase-negative novobiocin susceptible staphylococci obtained from an epidemiologically unrelated blood Culture and a wound infection. These isolates significantly differed from all other validated Staphlylococcus species based on phenotypic characteristics and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Both isolates had identical 16S rRNA sequences and phylogenetic trees constructed from evolutionary distances showed that this species formed a distinct and deep subline that was most closely related to members of the Staphylococcus saprophyticus cluster group (S. kloosii, S. gallinarum, S. arlettae, S. saprophyticus, S. xylosus, S. equorum, S. succinus and S. cohnii) and Staphylococcus auricularis. Furthermore these strains could each be distinguished from all other staphylococci based on at least one phenotypic trait. Therefore we propose the designation of "Staphylococcus pettenkoferi" a novel species of coagulase-negative staphylococci. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.