Prevotella amnii
Classification
Higher order taxa
The taxa classification of Prevotellla amnii is the following in the order of Bacteria; Phylum; Class; Order; Family; Genus:
Bacteroidete; Bacterodia; Bateroidates; Prevotellaceae; Prevotella; Prevotella amnii.
Species
Prevotella amnii
Description and significance
The isolate of this species were found to live in human amniotic fluid. This specie is a rod shaped gram negative bacteria. It is anaerobic, non-spore forming, and non-motile. These cells are about 0.8- 3.0 by 0.5-1.5 µm in size and can be about 1 mm in diameter. These cells appear as white, smooth, and glistening.
Cell metabolism
After conducting some tests and the results show that some of the major end products of glucose metabolism were acetic acid, succinic acid, and small quantities of isovaleric acid, isocuproic acid, and lactic acid. There were also some quantities of fatty acids found like: C13 : 1 (0.4 %), C14 : 0 (0.9 %), iso-C14 : 0 (5.6 %), C15 : 0 (0.3 %), iso-C15 : 0 (16.4 %), anteiso-C15 : 0 (32.3 %), iso-3-OH-C15 : 0 (0.9 %), C16 : 0 (6.4 %), iso-C16 : 0 (9.7 %), 3OH-C16 : 0 (2.0 %), iso-C17 : 0 (3.4 %), anteiso-C17 : 0 (2.9 %), iso-3-OH-C17 : 0 (10.3 %), 2-OH-C17 : 0 (1.1 %), C18 : 0 (1.8 %) and C18 : 1v9c (2.9 %).
Phylogenetic Affinities
There were many species from the genus Prevotella analyized compared to Prevotella amnii to see the phylogenetic affinities. Prevotella amnii was determined to be closely related to the species Prevotella bivia, a species found to live in the endometrium and is commonly recovered from patients with pelvic inflammatory diseases. To determine the phylogenetic affinities, the 16S rRNA gene sequence was used and amplified by PCR.
Biochemical characteristics
Prevotella amnii can be distinguished from Prevotella bivia by its ability to produce phosphor-6-β-galactosidase, an enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of β-galactosides into monosaccharides. and its incapability to produce α-fucosidase and glutamyl-glutamic acid arylamidase, an enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of the Glu dipeptide.
Current Research
To identify this species, amniotic fluid was collected from a 29 year old female in 1999 and tested. The fluid was defined as turbid and foul smelling. In another study, amniotic fluid was also collected from a 26 year old female in 2006 and the samples was cultured on Columbia agar enhanced with 5% defibrinated horse blood at 37 ºC. Fermentation tests were performed on the samples. After identifying the species, some tests were done and samples were collected from healthy women and from women with pelvic disease. The results show that the organism is found to live in healthy women, but in some unique case, it can be found in some disease processes and should be considered as an emerging “opportunistic pathogen”. It’s also likely that some isolates formally associated with pelvic diseases were identified as Prevotella bivia, when in fact there were strains of Prevotella amnii. Now that can be corrected by looking at the biochemical characteristics of the two species
References
"Beta-galactosidase." Princeton University. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2014.http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Beta-galactosidase.html
"Glutamylglutamic Arylamidase | Online References | Cyclopaedia.net." Glutamylglutamic Arylamidase | Online References | Cyclopaedia.net. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2014. http://en.cyclopaedia.net/wiki/Glutamylglutamic-arylamidase
Lawson, Paul A. "International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology."Prevotella Amnii Sp. Nov., Isolated from Human Amniotic Fluid. IJSEM, Jan. 2008. Web. 07 Mar. 2014. http://ijs.sgmjournals.org/content/58/1/89.full
"Prevotella Amnii CRIS 21A-A — Classifications." Encyclopedia of Life. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2014.http://eol.org/pages/11781948/names
Edited by (Nasra Ali!), student of Rachel Larsen at the University of Southern Maine
