Bifidobacterium apis sp. nov., isolated from the gut of honeybee (Apis mellifera)

A novel bifidobacterium (designated F753-1 T ) was isolated from the gut of honeybee ( Apis mellifera ). Strain F753-1 T was characterized using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Strain F753-1 T was phylogenetically related to the type strains of Bifidobacterium mizhiensis , Bifidobacterium asteroides , Bifidobacterium choladohabitans , Bifidobacterium mellis , Bifidobacterium apousia and Bifidobacterium polysaccharolyticum , having 98.4–99.8 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities. The phylogenomic tree indicated that strain F753-1 T was most closely related to the type strains of B. mellis and B. choladohabitans . Strain F753-1 T had the highest average nucleotide identity (94.1–94.5 %) and digital DNA–DNA hybridization (56.3 %) values with B. mellis Bin7N T . Acid production from amygdalin, d -fructose, gentiobiose, d -mannose, maltose, sucrose and d -xylose, activity of α -galactosidase, pyruvate utilization and hydrolysis of hippurate could differentiate strain F753-1 T from B. mellis CCUG 66113 T and B. choladohabitans JCM 34586 T . Based upon the data obtained in the present study, a novel species, Bifidobacterium apis sp. nov., is proposed, and the type strain is F753-1 T (=CCTCC AB 2023227 T =JCM 36562 T =LMG 33388 T ).