Gemmobacter lanyuensis sp. nov., isolated from a freshwater spring

Abstract

A bacterial strain designated Orc-4T was isolated from a freshwater spring in Taiwan and characterized using the polyphasic taxonomic approach. Cells of strain Orc-4T were facultatively anaerobic, Gram-reaction-negative, poly-β-hydroxybutyrate-accumulating, non-motile rods surrounded by a thick capsule and forming cream–white colonies. Growth occurred at 15–40 °C (optimum, 25–30 °C), at pH 6.0–9.0 (optimum, pH 7.0) and with 0–1 % NaCl (optimum, 0–0.5 %). Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain Orc-4T belonged to the genus Gemmobacter within the family Rhodobacteraceae of the class Alphaproteobacteria and its most closely related neighbour was Gemmobacter fontiphilus JS43T with sequence similarity of 97.8 %. Strain Orc-4T contained C18 : 1ω7c as the predominant fatty acid. The major respiratory quinone was Q-10. The DNA G+C content of the genomic DNA was 63.5 mol%. The polar lipid profile consisted of a mixture of phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, one uncharacterized aminolipid and several uncharacterized phospholipids. The DNA–DNA relatedness of strain Orc-4T with respect to recognized species of the genus Gemmobacter was less than 48 %. On the basis of the genotypic, chemotaxonomic and phenotypic data, strain Orc-4T represents a novel species of the genus Gemmobacter , for which the name Gemmobacter lanyuensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Orc-4T ( = BCRC 80378T = LMG 26667T = KCTC 23714T).