Sphingobacterium gobiense sp. nov., isolated from soil of the Gobi Desert

A Gram-stain-negative, short rod-shaped, non-motile, non-spore-forming bacterial strain, designated H7(T), was isolated from the Gobi desert, Xinjiang Province of China. The temperature, NaCl and pH ranges for growth were 8-40 °C (optimum 30 °C), 0-5 % (w/v) NaCl and pH 6-10 (optimum pH 7), respectively. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain H7(T) belonged to the genus Sphingobacterium and showed highest sequence similarity (91 %) to Sphingobacterium composti DSM 18850. The genomic DNA G+C content was 44.3 mol%. MK-7 was identified as the predominant respiratory quinone. Strain H7(T) contained C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c, iso-C15 : 0 and iso-C17 : 0 3-OH as major fatty acids. These data support the affiliation of strain H7(T) to the genus Sphingobacterium while phenotypic data indicated it is a representative strain of a novel species for which the name Sphingobacterium gobiense sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is H7(T) ( = ACCC 05757(T) = KCTC 32293(T)).