Pedobacter psychrophilus sp. nov., isolated from fragmentary rock

Strain P4487AT was isolated during investigation of cultivable bacterial populations of environmental materials sampled at James Ross Island, Antarctica. It revealed Gram-stain-negative short rod-shaped cells producing a pink pigment. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences allocated strain P4487AT to the genus Pedobacter but showed that the strain represents a distinct intrageneric phylogenetic lineage clearly separated from remaining Pedobacter species. Phylogenetically, strain P4487AT formed a common branch with the Pedobacter arcticus and Pedobacter lignilitoris cluster while the highest value of 94.4 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity suggested that Pedobacter lentus is the most closely related species. Biochemical and physiological test results enabled the differentiation of strain P4487AT from all phylogenetically closely related species. Chemotaxonomic analyses of strain P4487AT showed MK-7 as the respiratory menaquinone, sym-homospermidine as the major polyamine, phosphatidylethanolamine and two unidentified lipids as the major polar lipids, presence of sphingolipids, and C16 : 1ω7c/C16 : 1ω6c (summed feature 3), iso-C15 : 0 and iso-C17 : 0 3-OH as the major fatty acids, all of which corresponded with characteristics of the genus Pedobacter. The results showed that strain P4487AT represents a novel species within the genus Pedobacter, for which the name Pedobacter psychrophilus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is P4487AT (=CCM 8644T=LMG 29436T).