Paenibacillus harenae sp. nov., isolated from desert sand in China

A Gram-positive, endospore-forming, rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain B519T, was isolated from a desert sand sample of Gansu Province, China. Strain B519T was strictly aerobic and cells were motile by means of peritrichous flagella. The strain grew optimally at 32-35 degrees C and pH 6.5-7.0. Chemotaxonomic data supported the affiliation of the new isolate to the genus Paenibacillus, including menaquinone-7 (MK-7) as the major isoprenoid quinone, DNA G+C content of 49.9 mol%, cell-wall type A1gamma (meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid) and anteiso-C(15 : 0), iso-C(15 : 0), C(16 : 0) and iso-C(16 : 0) as the major fatty acids. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain B519T was most closely related to Paenibacillus alkaliterrae KSL-134T (98.0 % similarity). DNA-DNA relatedness between strain B519T and P. alkaliterrae KSL-134T was about 12.3 %. On the basis of phenotypic characteristics and molecular properties, strain B519T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus harenae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is B519T (=KCTC 3951T =DSM 16969T).