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- Volume 54, Issue 5
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f Akkermansia muciniphila gen. nov., sp. nov., a human intestinal mucin-degrading bacterium
- Authors: Muriel Derrien1 , Elaine E. Vaughan1 , Caroline M. Plugge1 , Willem M. de Vos1
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1 Laboratory of Microbiology, Wageningen University, Hesselink van Suchtelenweg 4, 6703 CT Wageningen, The Netherlands
- CorrespondenceMuriel Derrien [email protected]
- First Published Online: 01 September 2004, International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 54: 1469-1476, doi: 10.1099/ijs.0.02873-0
- Subject: New Taxa - Other Bacteria
- Cover date:




Akkermansia muciniphila gen. nov., sp. nov., a human intestinal mucin-degrading bacterium, Page 1 of 1
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The diversity of mucin-degrading bacteria in the human intestine was investigated by combining culture and 16S rRNA-dependent approaches. A dominant bacterium, strain MucT, was isolated by dilution to extinction of faeces in anaerobic medium containing gastric mucin as the sole carbon and nitrogen source. A pure culture was obtained using the anaerobic soft agar technique. Strain MucT was a Gram-negative, strictly anaerobic, non-motile, non-spore-forming, oval-shaped bacterium that could grow singly and in pairs. When grown on mucin medium, cells produced a capsule and were found to aggregate. Strain MucT could grow on a limited number of sugars, including N-acetylglucosamine, N-acetylgalactosamine and glucose, but only when a protein source was provided and with a lower growth rate and final density than on mucin. The G+C content of DNA from strain MucT was 47·6 mol%. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that the isolate was part of the division Verrucomicrobia. The closest described relative of strain MucT was Verrucomicrobium spinosum (92 % sequence similarity). Remarkably, the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain MucT showed 99 % similarity to three uncultured colonic bacteria. According to the data obtained in this work, strain MucT represents a novel bacterium belonging to a new genus in subdivision 1 of the Verrucomicrobia; the name Akkermansia muciniphila gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain is MucT (=ATCC BAA-835T=CIP 107961T).
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Published online ahead of print on 14 May 2004 as DOI 10.1099/ijs.0.02873-0.
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The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of Akkermansia muciniphila MucT is AY271254.
- Keyword(s): DGGE, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, MPN, most probable number, GI, gastrointestinal
SGM | Published by the Microbiology Society
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