Hymenobacter deserti sp. nov., isolated from the desert of Xinjiang, China

A Gram-negative, rod-shaped, non-motile and pink-pigmented bacterium, designated strain ZLB-3T, was isolated from a desert soil sample collected from Xinjiang Province, China, and characterized by using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that the isolate belongs to the phylum Bacteroidetes and is related to the genus Hymenobacter. 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities between strain ZLB-3T and the type strains of Hymenobacter species with validly published names ranged from 90.0 to 94.6 %. No other taxa in the phylum Bacteroidetes showed more than 90 % sequence similarity to the isolate. The strain contained MK-7 as the predominant menaquinone. The major fatty acids were iso-C(15 : 0) (27.8 %), anteiso-C(17 : 1) B/iso-C(17 : 1) I (25.2 %), iso-C(17 : 0) 3-OH (9.6 %) and C(16 : 1)omega7c/iso-C(15 : 0) 2-OH (8.5 %). Phosphatidylethanolamine, two unknown aminophospholipids, an unknown aminolipid, an unknown glycolipid and six unknown polar lipids were detected in the polar lipid profile. The DNA G+C content was 58.6 mol%. These chemotaxonomic data supported the affiliation of strain ZLB-3T to the genus Hymenobacter. However, the results of physiological and biochemical tests allowed phenotypic differentiation of the isolate from recognized Hymenobacter species. On the basis of the evidence presented, it is proposed that strain ZLB-3T represents a novel species, Hymenobacter deserti sp. nov. The type strain is ZLB-3T (=CCTCC AB 207171T =NRRL B-51267T).