Algoriphagus aquaeductus sp. nov., isolated from a freshwater pipe

Abstract

A Gram-staining-negative, aerobic to microaerophilic, rod-shaped, red-coloured bacterium, strain T4T, was isolated from a freshwater pipe on Tenerife island. A polyphasic taxonomic study was performed in order to characterize the strain in detail. The isolate is surrounded by a slime capsule, occurs singly, in the form of short chains, or in aggregates, and exhibits catalase and oxidase activities. Growth was observed at 15–42 °C. Optimum growth occurred at pH 8 with mono- and disaccharides, followed by polysaccharides and deoxysaccharides, but the bacterium utilized only a restricted spectrum of alcohols, alditols, amides, amines, carboxylic acids and amino acids. Strain T4T tolerated concentrations of 0–4 % (w/v) NaCl and contained MK-7 as predominant isoprenoid quinone as well as carotenoids, but lacked pigments of the flexirubin type. The predominant fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0 (32.2 %), summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω6c and/or C16 : 1ω7c; 22.5 %), and iso-C17 : 0 3-OH (7.9 %). Major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, phospholipids, aminophospholipids and other lipids of unknown character. The DNA G+C content was approximately 41.8 mol%. The sequence of the 16S-rRNA gene assigned strain T4T to the CFB group, forming a coherent cluster with species of the genus Algoriphagus with the highest similarity of 98.8 % to Algoriphagus aquatilis A8-7T. DNA–DNA hybridization revealed 37.5 % relatedness to strain A8-7T. Based on morphological, physiological and molecular properties as well as on phylogenetic distinctiveness, strain T4T should be placed into the genus Algoriphagus as a novel species, for which the name Algoriphagus aquaeductus sp. nov. (type strain T4T  = DSM 19759T  = LMG 24398T  = NCIMB 14399T) is proposed.