Blastochloris gulmargensis sp. nov., isolated from an epilithic phototrophic biofilm

Abstract

A novel Gram-negative, motile, bacteriochlorophyll b-containing purple non-sulfur bacterium, strain JA248T, was isolated from phototrophic enrichments of a yellow–green epilithic biofilm sample collected from Gulmarg, India. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain JA248T was 63.8 mol%. A phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain JA248T had highest similarity to members of the genus Blastochloris and was closely related to Blastochloris sulfoviridis DSM 729T (98.5 % sequence similarity) and Blastochloris viridis DSM 133T (98.4 %) of the class Alphaproteobacteria. Strain JA248T was characterized based on polyphasic taxonomy, and distinct phenotypic and molecular differences based on DNA–DNA hybridization (relatedness of <46.5 % with the two species of the genus Blastochloris), multilocus sequence analysis, and phenotypic and chemotaxonomic evidence separated strain JA248T from other species of the genus Blastochloris. Strain JA248T therefore represents a novel species in the genus Blastochloris, for which the name Blastochloris gulmargensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is JA248T ( = JCM 14795T  = DSM 19786T).