The family Propionibacteriaceae: Genera other than Propionibacterium

Abstract

The family Propionibacteriaceae constitutes a phylogenetically coherent family. Together with the family Nocardioidaceae, it is a member of the order Propionibacteriales which, according to the Road Map of the Phylum Actinobacteria (Ludwig et al. 2012), form a large clade containing also the orders Actinopolysporales, Corynebacteriales, Glycomycetales, Jiangellales, Micromonosporales, and Pseudonocardiales (note, that the names of these orders have not yet been validated). Besides the genus Propionibacterium, that will be dealt with in a separate chapter, the family embraces 14 genera, most of which are monospecific. Members of the family have been isolated from a broad range of different habitats, including activated sludge, the marine environment, contaminated soil, human samples, and spiders and their webs. Chemotaxonomically the family is defined by similar menaquinone types, fatty acid composition, polar lipids, and, if investigated, polyamine pattern, but shows a wider spectrum of different peptidoglycan types and variations as well as more than 15 mol% differences in the G+C content of DNA.