Psychromicrobium lacuslunae sp. nov., isolated from a high altitude lake

The novel strain IHBB 11108 T was a psychrotolerant and alkaliphilic bacterium isolated from the subsurface water of Chandra Tal Lake in the Lahaul-Spiti valley located in the Indian trans-Himalayas. Cells were Gram-stain-positive, aerobic, non-motile, catalase-positive and oxidase-negative. The strain grew at 5-37 °C (optimum 28 °C), pH 5.0-12.0 (optimum pH 7.0) and with up to 8 % NaCl (optimum 1 %). The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed the highest relatedness of strain IHBB 11108 T with Psychromicrobium silvestre DSM 102047 T (97.5 %), Arthrobacter russicus DSM 14555 T (97.4 %) and Renibacterium salmoninarum ATCC 33209 T (97.4 %). The strain contained a quinone system with 57.2 % MK-9(H2), 39.1 % MK-10(H2), 3.0 % MK-8(H2) and 0.7 % MK-7(H2). The polar lipids detected were diphosphatidylglycerol, dimannosylglyceride, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylglycerol, monogalactosyldiacylglycerol, one unidentified glycolipid and four unidentified lipids. The cell-wall peptidoglycan structure type was A3α l-Lys-l-Thr-l-Ala with substitution of the α-carboxyl group of d-Glu by alanine amide. Anteiso-C15 : 0, iso-C16 : 0 and anteiso-C17 : 0 were the predominant fatty acids. The genomic DNA G+C content was 59.0 mol%. The DNA-DNA relatedness of strain IHBB 11108 T was 46.7±2.2, 43.1±2.5 and 19.1±2.4 % with P. silvestre DSM 102047 T , A. russicus DSM 14555 T and R. salmoninarum ATCC 33209 T , respectively. On the basis of the results of the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analyses, IHBB 11108 T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Psychromicrobium for which the name Psychromicrobium lacuslunae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is IHBB 11108 T (=MTCC 12460 T =MCC 2780 T =JCM 31143 T =KACC 19070 T ).