Journal of Species Research 9(1):35-45, 2020 A report of 12 unrecorded prokaryotic species isolated from gastrointestinal tracts and feces of various endangered animals in Korea Pil Soo Kim1,§, Ki-Eun Lee2,§, Euon Jung Tak1, Myung-Suk Kang3 and Jin-Woo Bae1,* 1Department of Biology and Department of Life and Nanopharmaceutical Sciences, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Republic of Korea 2Microorganism Resources Division, National Institute of Biological Resources, Incheon 22689, Republic of Korea 3Biological Resources Utilization Department, National Institute of Biological Resources, Incheon 22689, Republic of Korea *Correspondent:
[email protected] §These authors contributed equally to this work. In 2016 and 2017, as part of a comprehensive investigation to identify the prokaryotic species in Korea, a total of 12 bacterial strains were isolated from the gastrointestinal tract and/or fecal samples of four endangered species, including reptile, bird, and marine and terrestrial mammals. Phylogenetic analysis with the 16S rRNA gene sequence was used to assign these strains to the phyla, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria or Proteobacteria. Furthermore, most of the strains Firmicutes belonged to the order Lactobacillales. Interestingly, 12 of the isolated strains have not been previously reported from the Korean Peninsula. Also, based on their high 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities (>98.7%) and formation of strong monophyletic clades with the closest type species, each isolated strain of isolates was assigned to an independent, predefined bacterial species. Gram- stain reaction, colony and cell morphology, biochemical characteristics, isolation source, and NIBR IDs are described in the species description section. Keywords: 16S rRNA sequence, endangered animals, gut microbiota, Korean Peninsula, unrecorded species Ⓒ 2020 National Institute of Biological Resources DOI:10.12651/JSR.2020.9.1.035 INTRODUCTION al., 2009; Round and Mazmanian, 2009).