Methylopila turkiensis sp. nov., a new aerobic facultatively methylotrophic phytosymbiont

Abstract

A new facultative methylotroph, strain Side1T, was isolated from the phyllosphere of Bougainvillea sp. L. The isolate is represented by rod-shaped, aerobic gram-negative asporogenous bacteria which divide by binary fission. Methanol and mono- and trimethylamine were utilized, as well as a limited spectrum of polycarbon substrates, while methane and dichloromethane were not used. Growth occurred at pH 6.0–9.0 with the optimum at pH 7.0 within the temperature range from 20 to 40°C (optimum at 28–30°C) and 0–2.5% NaCl in the medium. The predominant fatty acids were cis-11-octadecenoic (C18:1ω7c), 11-methyl-octadecenoic (C18:ω7c11Me), and stearic (C18:0) acids. Phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, and diphosphatidylglycerol were the dominant phospholipids. Q10 was the dominant ubiquinone. The isolate oxidized methanol and methylamine by the appropriate dehydrogenases. The isocitrate lyase-negative variant of the serine pathway was used. Ammonium assimilation involved glutamate dehydrogenase and the glutamate cycle (glutamate synthase and glutamine synthetase). The strain synthesized indole and siderophores; it solubilized insoluble phosphates. The DNA G+C content (Tm) was 65.4 mol %. While the nucleotide sequence of the 16S rRNA gene of strain Side1 exhibited high similarity to those of Methylopila species (M. musalis MUSAT and M. capsulata IM1T), DNA-DNA homology with these cultures was 32–37%. The results obtained supported classification of strain Side1T as a new species Methylopila turkiensis sp. nov. (VKM B-2748T= DSM 27566T).