RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Niu, Lina A1 Lu, Shan A1 Hu, Shoukui A1 Jin, Dong A1 Lai, Xinhe A1 Yang, Jing A1 Chen, Cuixia A1 Wang, Yi A1 Wang, Yiting A1 Bai, Xiangning A1 Lan, Ruiting A1 Lv, Gang A1 Xie, Yingping A1 Ye, Changyun A1 Xu, JianguoYR 2016 T1 Streptococcusmarmotae sp. nov., isolated from the respiratory tract of Marmota himalayana JF International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, VO 66 IS 11 SP 4315 OP 4322 DO https://doi.org/10.1099/ijsem.0.001350 PB Microbiology Society, SN 1466-5034, AB Five strains of a Gram-stain-positive, catalase-negative, α-haemolytic, coccus-shaped chain-forming organism were isolated separately from the lower respiratory tracts of five animals of Marmota himalayana in the endemic area of plague, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China. Based on their morphological characteristics, biochemical features and molecular phylogenetic studies, the strains were placed as representing a new member of the genus Streptococcus . Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence studies indicated that strain HTS5T shared 96.5, 96.2 and 96.0 % similarity with Streptococcus gallinaceus CCUG 42692T, Streptococcus parasanguinis ATCC 15912T and Streptococcus suis ATCC 43765T, respectively. Sequence analysis of its rpoB and sodA genes showed that strain HTS5T was most closely related to Streptococcus cuniculi CCUG 65085T with 9.2 and 10.9 % interspecies divergence, respectively. The whole genome phylogenetic tree based on 339 core genes of 65 Streptococcus genomes confirmed that HTS5T belongs to a distinct lineage that is well separated from recognized species of the genus Streptococcus . In silico DNA–DNA hybridization using 65 available genomes from GenBank showed that HTS5T displayed less than 70 % DNA–DNA relatedness with the other 65 species of the genus Streptococcus deposited in the GenBank database. The genome of strain HTS5T (2 322 791 bp) contained 2377 genes and had a G+C content of 41.6 mol%. Therefore, the five strains are considered to represent a novel species of the genus Streptococcus for which the name Streptococcus marmotae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is HTS5T (=DSM 101995T=CGMCC 1.15534T)., UL https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/ijsem/10.1099/ijsem.0.001350