Genomic and phenotypic characterization of Pseudomonas hygromyciniae, a novel bacterial species discovered from a commercially purchased antibiotic

A purchased lot of the antibiotic hygromycin B was found to be contaminated with a novel bacterial species, which we designate Pseudomonas hygromyciniae. The P. hygromyciniae strain harbors a novel 250 kb megaplasmid which confers resistance to hygromycin B and contains numerous other genes predicted to encode replication and conjugation machinery. These findings indicate that commercially manufactured antibiotics represent another extreme environment that may support the growth of novel bacterial species.