Pontibacter ruber sp. nov. and Pontibacter deserti sp. nov., isolated from the desert

Abstract

Two strains of bacteria, JC213T and JC215T, were isolated from desert soil. Colonies were red to pink and cells Gram-stain-negative. Both strains were oxidase- and catalase-positive and hydrolysed casein. In both strains, phosphatidylethanolamine was the major polar lipid, iso-C15 : 0 was the major fatty acid and the bacteriohopane derivative, BHD1, was the major hopanoid. The genomic DNA G+C contents of strains JC213T and JC215T were 52.7 and 46.3 mol%, respectively. 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons indicated that both strains belong to the genus Pontibacter within the family Cytophagaceae and the phylum Bacteroidetes . Strain JC213T showed the highest sequence similarity to Pontibacter populi HLY7-15T (96.6 %) and with other species of the genus Pontibacter sequence similarity was less than 96 %. Strain JC215T exhibited highest sequence similarity with Pontibacter lucknowensis DM9T (95.1 %) and shared 95 % or less sequence similarity with other species of the genus Pontibacter . The sequence similarity between strains JC213T and JC215T was 95.8 %. Distinct morphological, physiological and genotypic differences from previously described taxa support JC213T and JC215T being representatives of two novel species of the genus Pontibacter , for which the names Pontibacter ruber sp. nov. and Pontibacter deserti sp. nov. are proposed and the type strains are JC213T ( = KCTC 32442T = LMG 27669T) and JC215T ( = KCTC 32443T = LMG 27670T), respectively.