After a long and frustrating debate on what to name the new bacterium, the official species description for Vibrio metoecus is finally published! The paper is entitled "Vibrio metoecus sp. nov., a close relative of Vibrio cholerae isolated from coastal brackish ponds and clinical specimens" and published in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology today. Yan and Paul lead the research group, which included prominent environmental microbiologist Dr. Rita Colwell (University of Maryland). As the title of the paper mentions, the newly described species, V. metoecus, is now the known closest relative of the well-known V. cholerae.
V. metoecus was formerly and unofficially named V. metecus. The Boucher Lab is currently pursuing more research work to gain insight on the evolution and emergence of this new species.
Electron micrographs of V. metoecus. (A) Scanning electron microscopy, scale bar = 2 μm; (B) Transmission electron microscopy, scale bar = 0.2 μm (from Kirchberger et al., 2014)