STENOTROPHOMONAS AFRICANA SP-NOV, AN OPPORTUNISTIC HUMAN PATHOGEN IN AFRICA

A gram-negative bacterium was isolated from a cerebrospinal fluid samp le from an HIV-seropositive Rwandan refugee with primary meningoenceph alitis. This Marseille-Goma sample B isolate, strain MGB(T) (T = type strain), was found to exhibit evolutionary homology with Stenotrophomo nas maltophilia, as determined by a 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, a nd this finding was reflected by similar phenotypic traits. MGB(T) cou ld, however, be distinguished from the S. maltophilia type strain by u sing a number of biochemical and physiological tests, and a genotypic analysis of the two strains in which DNA homology was used revealed on ly 35% homology between them. Furthermore, the antibiotic susceptibili ty of MGB(T) was restricted to netilmicin, ciprofloxacin, trimethoprim -sulfamethoxazole, and colimycin. On the basis of these results we pro pose that MGB(T) is a representative of a new species in the genus Ste notrophomonas, Stenotrophomonas africana.