Paenibacillus methanolicus sp. nov., a xylanolytic, methanol-utilizing bacterium isolated from the phyllosphere of bamboo (Pseudosasa japonica)

Strain BL24T, isolated from bamboo phyllosphere collected in Coimbatore, India, was studied for taxonomic classification. Cells of the strain were aerobic, Gram-stain-positive, motile, catalase- and oxidase-positive rods and grew on media containing methanol. In 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain BL24Tshowed the highest sequence similarities with Paenibacillus phyllosphaeraeKACC 11473T (97.8 %) and Paenibacillus sacheonensisSY01 (95.1 %). DNA-DNA hybridization with P. phyllosphaerae KACC 11473T, phylogenetically the most closely related species, was 21.6 %; this value showed that strain BL24Tbelonged to a different species. The cell-wall peptidoglycan was found to possess meso-diaminopimelic acid and the G+C content of genomic DNA was 52.1 mol %. It contained menaquinone (MK)-7 as the predominant respiratory quinone and the major cellular fatty acids are C16 : 0, anteiso-C15 : 0, iso-C16 : 0, and anteiso-C17 : 0. Based on the molecular and chemotaxonomic markers and physiological properties, strain BL24T (=NRRL B-51698T=CCM 7577T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillusmethanolicusis proposed.