Luteolibacter gellanilyticus sp nov., a gellan-gum-degrading bacterium of the phylum Verrucomicrobia isolated from miniaturized diffusion chambers

A novel chemo-organoheterotrophic bacterium, strain CB-286403(T), was isolated from a Mediterranean forest soil, collected at Sierra de Tejeda, Almijara and Alhama Natural Park, Spain, by using the Diffusion Sandwich System, a device with 384 miniature diffusion chambers. The 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses identified the isolate as a member of the genus Luteolibacter where the type strains Luteolibacter pohnpeiensis A4T-83(T) (GenBank acc. no. AB331895), Luteolibacter yonseiensis EBTL01(T) (JQ319003), Luteolibacter luojiensis DR4-30(T) (JN630810) and Luteolibacter algae A5J-41-2(T) (AB331893) were the closest relatives with similarities of 97.0, 96.3, 96.3 and 94.5 %, respectively. The novel isolate was characterized as a Gram-stain-negative, non-motile, short-rod-shaped bacterium. The strain showed a positive response for catalase and cytochrome-c oxidase, divided by binary fission and/or budding, and exhibited an aerobic metabolism. Strain CB-286403(T) showed a mesophilic and neutrophilic growth range and showed a nutritional preference for simple sugars and complex protein substrates. Major fatty acids included iso-C-14:0, C-16:0, C-16:1 omega 7c/iso-C-15:0 2-OH and anteiso-C-15:0. The predominant respiratory quinone was MK-9. Polar lipids comprised major amounts of phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglycerol and minor amounts of three unidentified lipids, a glycolipid, a phospholipid and a phosphoglycolipid. Based on a polyphasic taxonomic characterization, strain CB-286403(T) represents a novel species of the genus Luteolibacter, for which the name Luteolibacter gellanilyticus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CB-286403(T) (=DSM 28998(T)=CECT 8659(T) ).