Gemmobacter intermedius sp. nov., isolated from a white stork (Ciconia ciconia)

A cream-coloured, Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile, rod- to irregular shaped bacterium, strain 119/4(T), was isolated from a choana swab of a white stork nestling on sheep blood agar. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis and subsequent comparisons showed that it was a member of the family Rhodobacteraceae, showing 94.9 % similarity to the type strain of Gemmobacter tilapiae and 94.6 % similarity to that of Gemmobacter nectariphilus, but also similarly low sequence similarity to the type strains of Rhodobacter viridis (94.8 %), Rhodobacter veldkampii (94.6 %) and Paenirhodobacter enshiensis (94.6 %). Reconstruction of phylogenetic trees showed that strain 119/4(T) clustered close to species of the genus Gemmobacter. The quinone system contained high amounts of ubiquinone Q-10 with traces of Q-8, Q-9 and Q-11, and the fatty acid profile consisted mainly of C18 : 1ω7c, C16 : 1ω7c/iso-C15 : 0 2-OH and C10 : 0 3-OH. The predominant polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phoshatidylglycerol and phosphatidylcholine. Major polyamines were putrescine and spermidine. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis and chemotaxonomic and physiological data, strain 119/4(T) represents a novel species of the genus Gemmobacter, for which the name Gemmobacter intermedius sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 119/4(T) ( = CIP 110795(T) = LMG 28215(T) = CCM 8510(T)).