Sphingobacterium arenae sp. nov., isolated from sandy soil

Abstract

A novel, Gram-stain-negative, non-motile, non-spore-forming, short rod-shaped, aerobic bacterium designated H-12(T) was isolated from a mixed sandy soil sample collected from Xinjiang, China. Strain H-12(T) grew at 20-37 °C (optimum, 30 °C), pH 7.0-11.0 (optimum, pH 8.5) on TGY medium with 0-5 % NaCl (w/v). 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that strain H-12(T) shared sequence similarities with Sphingobacterium composti DSM 18850(T) (90.0 %). Strain H-12(T) showed a low level of DNA-DNA relatedness to Sphingobacterium composti DSM 18850(T) (45.5 %). The predominant isoprenoid quinone of strain H-12(T) was MK-7 and the major polar lipid was phosphatidylethanolamine. The predominant cellular fatty acids were C16:1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c, iso-C15 : 0, iso-C17 : 0 3-OH, C16 : 0, C16 : 0 3-OH and iso-C15 : 0 3-OH. DNA G+C content of strain H-12(T) was 44.15 mol%. On the basis of phenotypic, genetic and phylogenetic data, strain H-12(T) is proposed to be a representative of a novel species of the genus Sphingobacterium, for which the name Sphingobacterium arenae sp. nov. is suggested and the type strain is H-12(T) ( = ACCC 05758(T) = KCTC 32294(T)).