Thermomonas koreensis sp. nov., a mesophilic bacterium isolated from a ginseng field

Abstract

A Gram-negative, non-spore-forming, rod-shaped, motile bacterium, strain Ko06T, was isolated from soil from a ginseng field in South Korea and was characterized in order to determine its taxonomic position. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that strain Ko06T belongs to the Gammaproteobacteria, and the highest levels of sequence similarity were with Thermomonas brevis LMG 21746T (98.4 %), Thermomonas fusca LMG 21737T (97.7 %), Thermomonas haemolytica A50-7-3T (96.5 %) and Thermomonas hydrothermalis SGM-6T (95.8 %). Chemotaxonomic data revealed that strain Ko06T possesses ubiquinone Q-8 and that the predominant fatty acids are C15 : 0 iso, C11 : 0 iso and C11 : 0 iso 3-OH, all of which corroborated assignment of the strain to the genus Thermomonas. The results of DNA–DNA hybridization and physiological and biochemical tests clearly demonstrated that strain Ko06T represents a distinct species. On the basis of these data, strain Ko06T (=KCTC 12540T=NBRC 101155T) should be classified as the type strain of a novel Thermomonas species, for which the name Thermomonas koreensis sp. nov. is proposed.