Chitinophaga tropicalis sp. nov., isolated from forest soil

A novel bacterial strain, designated ysch24 T , was isolated from a forest soil sample collected from the Cat Tien National Park, southern Vietnam. Cells were Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, gliding, filamentous or rod-shaped. The results of 16S rRNA gene analyses revealed that strain ysch24 T belongs to the genus Chitinophaga , and was most closely related to Chitinophaga silvisoli GDMCC 1.1411 T (97.4 %), followed by Chitinophaga oryziterrae JCM 16595 T (97.3 %) and Chitinophaga sancti NBRC 15057 T (96.9 %). The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA–DNA hybridization values between strain ysch24 T and closely related type strains were 72.0–74.0 % and 19.1–19.4 %, respectively. Major fatty acids were iso-C 15 : 0 , C 16 : 1   ω5 c and iso-C 17 : 0 3-OH and the predominant respiratory quinone was menaquinone 7. Polar lipids consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, four unidentified aminophospholipids, two unidentified phospholipids and four unidentified lipids. The genomic DNA G+C content was 45.6 mol%. The study clearly showed that strain ysch24 T should represent a novel species of the genus Chitinophaga , for which the name Chitinophaga tropicalis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is ysch24 T (=GDMCC 1.1355 T =KACC 21527 T ).