Sphingomonas psychrolutea sp. nov., a psychrotolerant bacterium isolated from glacier ice.

ABSTRACT

A Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped, orange bacterium (strain MDB1-A(T)) was isolated from ice samples collected from Midui glacier in Tibet, south-west China. Cells were aerobic and psychrotolerant (growth occurred at 0-25 °C). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that it was a member of the genus Sphingomonas, with its closest relative being Sphingomonas glacialis C16y(T) (98.9% similarity). Q-10 was the predominant ubiquinone. C17 1ω6c and summed feature 8 (C18 1ω6c and/or C18 1ω7c) were the major cellular fatty acids. The predominant polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and sphingoglycolipid. The polyamines detected were sym-homospermidine, spermidine and spermine. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 63.6%. Based on data from this polyphasic analysis, strain MDB1-A(T) represents a novel species of the genus Sphingomonas, for which the name Sphingomonas psychrolutea sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is MDB1-A(T) ( = CGMCC 1.10106(T) = NBRC 109639(T)).