Luteimonas tolerans sp. nov., isolated from hexachlorocyclohexane-contaminated soil

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming, yellow pigmented bacterial strain (UM1T) was isolated from the hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH)-contaminated dumpsite located at Ummari village in Lucknow, India. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain UM1T belongs to the genus Luteimonas with Luteimonas aestuarii B9T as the closest neighbour (97.2% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity). The DNA G+C content of strain UM1T was 64.3 mol%. The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and phosphatidylglycerol (PG). Main fatty acids were iso-C15:0, iso-C11:0, iso-C11:0 3-OH, iso-C17:0 and summed feature 9 (C16:0 10-methyl and/or iso-C17:1ω9c). Ubiquinone (Q-8) was the only respiratory quinone. Spermidine was detected as the major polyamine. The DNA-DNA relatedness value of strain UM1T with respect to its closest neighbour Luteimonas aestuarii B9T was well below 70 % (∼49%). Thus, data obtained from phylogenetic analysis, DNA-DNA hybridization, and chemotaxonomical and biochemical analyses supports classification of strain UM1T as representative of a novel species of the genus Luteimonas, for which the name Luteimonas tolerans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is UM1T (=DSM 28473T=MCC 2572T=KCTC 42936T).