Streptococcal taxonomy based on genome sequence analyses [version 1; referees: 2 approved]

The identification of the clinically relevant viridans streptococci group, at species level, is still problematic. The aim of this study was to extract taxonomic information from the complete genome sequences of 67 streptococci, comprising 19 species, by means of genomic analyses, multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA), average amino acid identity (AAI), genomic signatures, genome-to-genome distances (GGD) and codon usage bias. We then attempted to determine the usefulness of these genomic tools for species identification in streptococci. Our results showed that MLSA, AAI and GGD analyses are robust markers to identify streptococci at the species level, for instance, , , and . A species can S. pneumoniae S. mitis S. oralis Streptococcus be defined as a group of strains that share ≥ 95% DNA similarity in MLSA and AAI, and > 70% DNA identity in GGD. This approach allows an advanced understanding of bacterial diversity. This article is included in the Phylogenetics channel. Cristiane C Thompson ( ) Corresponding author: [email protected] Thompson CC, Emmel VE, Fonseca EL How to cite this article: et al. Streptococcal taxonomy based on genome sequence analyses 2013, :67 (doi: ) [version 1; referees: 2 approved] F1000Research 2 10.12688/f1000research.2-67.v1 © 2013 Thompson CC . This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the , Copyright: et al Creative Commons Attribution Licence which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Data associated with the article are available under the terms of the (CC0 1.0 Public domain dedication). Creative Commons Zero "No rights reserved" data waiver The author(s) declared that no grants were involved in supporting this work. Grant information: Competing interests: No relevant competing interests were disclosed. 01 Mar 2013, :67 (doi: ) First published: 2 10.12688/f1000research.2-67.v1 * *