Isolation and characterization of Reyranella massiliensis gen. nov., sp. nov. from freshwater samples by using an amoeba co-culture procedure.

The analysis of three water samples from two cooling towers and one river allowed us to isolate three strains of a novel species of the class Alphaproteobacteria which is phylogenetically related to uncultured alphaproteobacteria. Based upon 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis and phenotypic characterization, we propose to name this novel species Reyranella massiliensis gen. nov., sp. nov., type strain 521(T) ( = CSUR P115(T)  = DSM 23428(T)). The most closely related cultivable micro-organism to this novel bacterium is a member of the genus Magnetospirillum.