Hymenobacter puniceus sp. nov., radiation resistant bacteria isolated from soil in South Korea.

ABSTRACT

Two novel Gram-negative bacterial strains BT190T and BT191 were isolated from soil collected in Uijeongbu city (37°44'55″N, 127°02'20″E), Korea. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strains BT190T and BT191 belong to a distinct lineage within the genus Hymenobacter (family Hymenobacteraceae, order Cytophagales, class Cytophagia). The level of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity between the strains BT190T and BT190 was 99.5%. The strains BT190T and BT191 were closely related to Hymenobacter swuensis DY53T (97.0% 16S rRNA gene similarity), Hymenobacter metallilatus 9PBR-2 T (96.8%), Hymenobacter tibetensis XTM003T (96.8%) and Hymenobacter yonginensis HMD1010T (96.6%). The genome size of strain BT190T was 4,859,864 bp. The DNA G+C content of strain BT190T was 55.3 mol%. Bacterial growth was observed at 4-30 °C (optimum 25 °C) and pH 6.0-9.0 (optimum, pH 6.0-7.0) on R2A agar. Colonies of strains BT190T and BT191 were raised, smooth, circular and red-pink colored. The sole respiratory quinone of strain BT190T was MK-7 and the predominant cellular fatty acids were iso-C150, C161 ω5c, summed feature 3 (C161 ω6c / C161 ω7c) and summed feature 4 (iso-C171 I / anteiso-C171 B). The major polar lipids of strain BT190T were aminophospholipid (APL) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE). Based on the chemotaxonomic, biochemical, and phylogenetic analysis, strains BT190T and BT191 can be suggested as a novel bacterial species within the genus Hymenobacter, for which the name Hymenobacter puniceus sp. nov is proposed. The type strain of Hymenobacter puniceus is BT190T (= KCTC 72342 T = NBRC 114860 T).