Starkeya koreensis sp. nov., isolated from rice straw

Abstract

A facultatively chemolithoautotrophic, Gram-negative, aerobic, highly curved rod-shaped, non-motile, non-spore-forming bacterium, strain Jip08T, was isolated from rice straw in Daejeon, South Korea. Strain Jip08T produced colourless colonies (1.0–1.5 mm) on R2A medium after 3 days. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, strain Jip08T was shown to belong to the α-2 subclass of the Proteobacteria, and was most closely related to Starkeya novella IAM 12100T (98.6 %), Angulomicrobium tetraedale DSM 5895T (98.1 %), Angulomicrobium amanitiforme NCIMB 1785T (98.0 %), Ancylobacter aquaticus ATCC 25396T (96.6 %) and Methylorhabdus multivorans DM13T (95.8 %), all of which belong to the family Hyphomicrobiaceae. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain Jip08T was 69 mol%. Chemotaxonomic data [major ubiquinone, Q-10; major fatty acids, C18 : 1 isomer (summed feature of C18 : 1 ω7c/ω9t/ω12t), C19 : 0 cyclo ω8c and C16 : 0], 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses and some morphological and physiological features supported the affiliation of strain Jip08T to the genus Starkeya. However, DNA–DNA hybridization data and some phenotypic properties showed that strain Jip08T could be distinguished from the single known Starkeya species and represented a novel species, for which the name Starkeya koreensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Jip08T (=KCTC 12212T=NBRC 100963T=IAM 15215T).