Sphingobacterium yamdrokense sp nov., isolated from Lake Yamdrok

A strictly aerobic and facultatively psychrophilic bacterium, strain 3-0-1(T), was isolated from Lake Yamdrok on the Tibetan Plateau, China. Cells were Gram-negative and short-rod-shaped. Strain 3-0-1(T) formed circular, opaque, yellow colonies, and grew at 0-5 % (w/v) NaCl, pH 5.0-11.0 and 5-35 A degrees C. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences of various species with validly published names showed that strain 3-0-1(T) belongs to the genus Sphingobacterium, family Sphingobacteriaceae, sharing the highest similarity with Sphingobacterim nematocida M-SX103(T) (96.62 %) and less than 95 % similarity with all the other species in the genus Sphingobactrium. The predominant isoprenoid quinone of strain 3-0-1(T) was identified as menaquinone 7 (MK-7), the major polar lipid was identified as phosphatidylethanolamine and the DNA G+C content was determined to be 42.5 mol%. The predominant cellular fatty acids were identified as summed feature 3 (C-16:1 omega 7c and/or C-16:1 omega 6c) (> 30 %), iso-C-15:0 (> 20 %) and iso-C-17:0 3-OH (> 10 %). Based on the variability of phylogenetic and phenotypic characteristics, strain 3-0-1(T) represents a novel species of the genus Sphingobacterium, for which the name Sphingobacterium yamdrokense sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 3-0-1(T) (=JCM 19397(T) = CGMCC 1.12560(T)).