Massilia violacea sp. nov., isolated from riverbank soil

A bacterial strain designated CAVIOT was isolated during the course of a study of culturable bacteria in a riverbank soil sample from Tlaxcala, Mexico. The strain was subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic characterization. Strain CAVIOT was aerobic, Gram-stain-negative, non-spore-forming and rod-shaped. Colonies grown on R2A agar at 28 °C were pale violet, mucoid, rounded, smooth and glossy. The strain was motile and catalase- and oxidase-positive, and maximum growth temperature was 35 °C. Strain CAVIOT was classified within the genus Massilia as its 16S rRNA gene sequence was closely related to those of Massilia umbonata LP01T (97.5 % similarity), Massilia dura 16T (97.2 %) and Massilia plicata 76T (97.1 %). The predominant respiratory quinone was Q8. The major fatty acids were summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c/C16 : 1ω6c), C16 : 0 and summed feature 8 (C18 : 1ω7c/C18 : 1ω6c). The predominant polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol and an unknown phospholipid. The DNA G+C content was 65.0 mol% (Tm). DNA-DNA hybridization results showed values below 25 % with respect to the type strains of the closest related species. Therefore, strain CAVIOT can be differentiated from previously described species of the genus Massilia and represents a novel species, for which the name Massilia violacea sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CAVIOT ( = CECT 8897T = LMG 28941T).