Gemmiger formicilis, n.gen., n.sp., an Anaerobic Budding Bacterium from Intestines

Abstract

A species of strictly anaerobic, carbohydrate-fermenting, formic-and butyric acid-producing, gram-negative to gram-variable bacteria is described on the basis of 35 isolates from human feces and one isolate from chicken cecal contents. Members of this species produce morphological forms with the appearance of buds. This species cannot be assigned to any known genus, and therefore a new genus, Gemmiger (L. n. gemma a bud; L. v. gero to bear; M. L. masc. n. gemmiger bud bearer), is proposed with G. formicilis n.sp. (M. L. adj. formicilis pertaining to formic acid) as the type species. The type strain of this species is Virginia Polytechnic Institute strain X2-56 (= ATCC 27749).