Paenibacillus physcomitrellae sp. nov., isolated from the moss Physcomitrella patens

A Gram-stain-positive, facultatively anaerobic and rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain XBT, was isolated from Physcomitrella patens growing in Beijing, China. The isolate was identified as a member of the genus Paenibacillus based on phenotypic characteristics and phylogenetic inferences. The novel strain was spore-forming, motile, catalase-negative and weakly oxidase-positive. Optimal growth of strain XBT occurred at 28°C and pH 7.0-7.5. The major polar lipids contained diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and several unidentified components, including one phospholipid, two aminophospholipids, three glycolipids, one aminolipid and one lipid. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was MK-7. The diamino acid found in the cell-wall peptidoglycan was meso-diaminopimelic acid. The major fatty acid components (>5 %) were anteiso-C15 : 0 (51.2 %), anteiso-C17 : 0 (20.6 %), iso-C16 : 0 (8.3 %) and C16 : 0 (6.7 %). The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 53.3 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis, based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence, showed that strain XBT fell within the evolutionary distances encompassed by the genus Paenibacillus; its closest phylogenetic neighbour was Paenibacillus yonginensis DCY84T (96.6 %). Based on phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic properties, strain XBT is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus physcomitrellae sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is XBT ( = CGMCC 1.15044T = DSM 29851T).