Chitinibacter fontanus sp. nov., isolated from a spring

A bacterial strain, designated STM-7T, was isolated from a spring in Taiwan and characterized using a polyphasic taxonomy approach. Cells of strain STM-7T were Gram-staining-negative, aerobic, poly-β-hydroxybutyrate-accumulating, motile by a single polar flagellum, rod-shaped, surrounded by a thick capsule and formed milky-white colonies. Growth occurred at 15-37 °C (optimum, 25-30 °C), at pH 6-8 (optimum, pH 6-7) and with 0-2 % NaCl (optimum, 0-1 %). Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain STM-7T belonged to the genus Chitinibacter and was most closely related to Chitinibacter tainanensis S1T with a sequence similarity of 97.3 %. Strain STM-7T contained summed feature 3 (comprising C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c) and C16 : 0 as the predominant fatty acids. The major hydroxyl fatty acids were C12 : 0 3-OH and C16 : 0 3-OH. The polar lipid profile consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, an uncharacterized aminophospholipid, an uncharacterized glycolipid and an uncharacterized phospholipid. The major isoprenoid quinone was Q-8. The DNA G+C content of the genomic DNA was 52.4 mol%. The DNA-DNA hybridization value for strain STM-7T with Chitinibacter tainanensis BCRC 17254T was less than 47 %. On the basis of the phylogenetic inference and phenotypic data, strain STM-7T should be classified as a representative of a novel species, for which the name Chitinibacter fontanus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is STM-7T (=BCRC 80923T=LMG 29289T=KCTC 42982T).