Pontibacter chinhatensis sp. nov., isolated from pond sediment containing discarded hexachlorocyclohexane isomer waste

Abstract

A halotolerant, Gram-negative, rod-shaped and light-red-pigmented bacterium, designated LP51T, was isolated from pond sediment near a hexachlorocyclohexane dumpsite located at Chinhat, Lucknow, India. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain LP51T formed a distinct phyletic clade along with the members of the genus Pontibacter. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to members of the genus Pontibacter ranged from 94.2 to 99.4  %. The cells were motile, aerobic and catalase- and oxidase-positive. The major fatty acids were iso-C15  :  0 (17.8  %), iso-C15  :  0 3-OH (8.8  %), iso-C17  :  0 3-OH (5.7  %), summed feature 3 (C16  :  1ω7c and/or C16  :  1ω6c; 6.5  %) and summed feature 4 (iso-C17  :  1 I and/or anteiso-C17  :  1 B; 30.7  %). The polar lipid profile of strain LP51T showed the presence of phosphatidylethanolamine, an unidentified aminophospholipid, unknown aminolipids, unknown polar lipids and unknown glycolipids. DNA–DNA relatedness of strain LP51T with respect to the most closely related type strain, Pontibacter korlensis X14-1T, was 47.2  %. On the basis of this information, it is proposed that the isolate be assigned to a novel species of the genus Pontibacter, for which the name Pontibacter chinhatensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is LP51T ( = CCM 8436T = MCC 2070T).