PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Liu, Xiaoying
AU  - Sutter, Jessica L.
AU  - de la Cuesta-Zuluaga, Jacobo
AU  - Waters, Jillian L.
AU  - Youngblut, Nicholas D.
AU  - Ley, Ruth E.
TI  - Reclassification of <em>Catabacter hongkongensis</em> as <em>Christensenella hongkongensis</em> comb.nov. based on whole genome analysis
AID  - 10.1101/2020.09.21.306662
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.09.21.306662
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/09/21/2020.09.21.306662.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/09/21/2020.09.21.306662.full
AB  - The genera Catabacter (family Catabacteraceae) and Christensenella (family Christensenellaceae) are close relatives within the phylum Firmicutes. Members of these genera are strictly anaerobic, non-spore forming, short straight rods with diverse phenotypes. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA genes suggest that Catabacter splits Christensenella into a polyphyletic clade. In an effort to ensure that family/genus names represent monophyletic clades, we performed a whole-genome based analysis of the genomes available for the cultured representatives of these genera: four species of Christensenella and two strains of Catabacter hongkongensis. A concatenated alignment of 135 shared protein sequences indicates that C. hongkongensis is indeed nested within the Christensenella clade. Based on their evolutionary relationship, we propose the transfer of Catabacter hongkongensis to the new genus as Christensenella hongkongensis comb.nov.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.