Sphingomonas hengshuiensis sp nov., isolated from lake wetland

A polyphasic taxonomic study was undertaken to establish the status of a novel bacterium, designated strain WHSC-8(T), which was isolated from soil of Hengshui Lake Wetland Reserve in Hebei province, northern China. Colonies of this strain were yellow and cells were rod shaped, polar-flagellated and obligately aerobic, exhibiting negative Gram reaction. The strain was able to grow at 0-1 % (w/v) NaCl, pH 5-10 and 20-35 degrees C, with optimal growth occurring at pH 7.0 and 28 degrees C without NaCl. Chemotaxonomic data revealed that strain WHSC-8(T) possesses ubiquinone Q-10 as the predominant respiratory quinone, C-18 : 1 omega 7c, C-16 : 0 and summed feature 3 (C-16 : 1 omega 7c and/or iso-C-15 : 0 2-OH) as the major fatty acids, and symhomospermidine as the major polyamine. Sphingomonadaceae-specific sphingoglycolipid was detected in the polar lipid patterns. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 68.7 mol%. All of the above characters corroborated the assignment of the novel strain to the genus Sphingomonas. Strain WHSC-8(T) shared less than 97.0 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with the type strains of other species of the genus Sphingomonas, except for Sphingomonas asaccharolytica DSM 10564(T) (97.5 %). The low DNA DNA relatedness value and distinct phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics distinguished strain WHSC-8(T) from closely related species of the genus Sphingomonas. Therefore, strain WHSC-8(T) represents a novel species of the genus Sphingomonas, for which the name Sphingomonas hengshuiensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is WHSC-8(T) (=KCTC 42455(T)=CCTCC AB 2015265(T)).