Chitinophaga longshanensis sp. nov., a mineral-weathering bacterium isolated from weathered rock.

Abstract

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, yellow-pigmented, non-motile, non-spore-forming, rod-shaped bacterial strain, Z29(T), was isolated from the surface of weathered rock (potassic trachyte) from Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, PR China. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences suggested that strain Z29(T) belongs to the genus Chitinophaga in the family Chitinophagaceae. Levels of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity between strain Z29(T) and the type strains of recognized species of the genus Chitinophaga ranged from 92.7 to 98.2 %. The main fatty acids of strain Z29(T) were iso-C15 : 0, C16 : 1ω5c and iso-C17 : 0 3-OH. It also contained menaquinone 7 (MK-7) as the respiratory quinone and homospermidine as the main polyamine. The polar lipid profile contained phosphatidylethanolamine, unknown aminolipids, unknown phospholipids and unknown lipids. The total DNA G+C content of strain Z29(T) was 51.3 mol%. Phenotypic properties and chemotaxonomic data supported the affiliation of strain Z29(T) with the genus Chitinophaga. The low level of DNA-DNA relatedness (ranging from 14.6 to 29.8 %) to the type strains of other species of the genus Chitinophaga and differential phenotypic properties demonstrated that strain Z29(T) represents a novel species of the genus Chitinophaga, for which the name Chitinophaga longshanensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Z29(T) ( = CCTCC AB 2014066(T) = LMG 28237(T)).