Porphyromonas levii is an anaerobic, pigmented gram-negative bacillus originally isolated from bovine rumen. We describe 58 human clinical strains of P. levii-like organisms, isolated from various human clinical specimens that are phenotypically similar to the type strain of P. levii, a rumen isolate (ATCC 29147). Our biochemical, comparative 16S rRNA sequence analyses, and DNA-DNA relatedness studies indicate that the human P. levii-like organisms are similar to each other but genetically different from the P. levii type strain isolated from bovine rumen. We therefore propose the name Porphyromonas somerae to encompass the human P. levii-like organisms. P. somerae was predominantly isolated from patients with chronic skin and soft tissue or bone infections, especially in the lower extremities.
C1 Vet Affair Med Ctr W Los Angeles, Res Serv, Los Angeles, CA USA.
Vet Affair Med Ctr W Los Angeles, Infect Dis Sect, Los Angeles, CA USA.
Inonu Univ, Fac Med, Dept Microbiol, Malatya, Turkey.
Natl Publ Hlth Inst, Dept Bacteriol Anaerobe, Ref Lab, Helsinki, Finland.
Turku Univ, Dept Med Microbiol, FIN-20520 Turku, Finland.
Univ Calif Los Angeles, Sch Med, Dept Med, Los Angeles, CA 90024 USA.
Univ Calif Los Angeles, Sch Med, Dept Microbiol Immunol & Mol Genet, Los Angeles, CA 90024 USA.
Univ Helsinki, Div Microbiol, Dept Appl Chem & Microbiol, Helsinki, Finland.