Hymenobacter terricola sp. nov., isolated from Antarctic soil

Abstract

Strain 3F2T was isolated from a soil sample obtained from the surface of Deception Island, Antarctica. The isolate was a Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile, rod-shaped bacterium, and its colonies were red to pink in colour. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain 3F2T belonged to the genus Hymenobacter , family Hymenobacteraceae and was most closely related to Hymenobacter sedentarius DG5BT (97.0% sequence similarity), Hymenobacter soli PB17T (96.9%), Hymenobacter terrae DG7AT (96.8%) and Hymenobacter rufus S1-2-2-6T (96.5%). Growth occurred at 4–20 °C (optimum, 10 °C), up to 1.0 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0%) and pH 6.0–8.0 (optimum, pH 7.0). The chemotaxonomic characteristics of strain 3F2T, which had MK-7 as its predominant menaquinone and summed feature 3 (C16:1 ω7c and/or C16:1 ω6c), iso-C15:0, anteiso-C15:0 and C16:1 ω5c as its major fatty acids, were consistent with classification in the genus Hymenobacter . The polar lipid profile of strain 3F2T comprised phosphatidylethanolamine, two unidentified aminolipids, two unidentified aminophospholipids and three unidentified polar lipids. The genome of strain 3F2T was 6.56 Mbp with a G+C content of 61.5 mol%. Average nucleotide identity (ANI) values between 3F2T and the other species of the genus Hymenobacter were found to be low (ANIm <87.0%, ANIb <82.0% and OrthoANIu <83.0%). Furthermore, digital DNA–DNA hybridization and average amino acid identity values between strain 3F2T and the closely related species ranged from 20.0 to 26.3% and from 64.0 to 81.1 %, respectively. Based on the results of our phylogenetic, phenotypic, genotypic and chemotaxonomic analyses, it is concluded that strain 3F2T represents a novel species within the genus Hymenobacter , for which the name Hymenobacter terricola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 3F2T (=KCTC 72468T=CGMCC 1.13716T).