Glaciihabitans arcticus sp. nov., a psychrotolerant bacterium isolated from Arctic soil

A non-motile, Gram-stain-positive, rod-shaped bacterium, designated RP-3-7(T), was isolated from soil sampled at the Arctic region in Cambridge Bay, NU, Canada. Cells were strictly aerobic, non-spore-forming, catalase-positive and oxidase-positive. Colonies on Reasoner's 2A agar plates were pale yellow-coloured. Strain RP-3-7(T) was psychrotolerant and grew optimally at 15-20 degrees C. Strain RP-3-7(T) assimilated D-glucose, D-mannitol, L-arabinose and L-proline; tolerated only 0.5 % NaCl (w/v). Phylogenetic analysis based on its 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that strain RP-3-7(T) formed a lineage within the family Microbacteriaceae and clustered with members of the genus Glaciihabitans. The closest member was Glaciihabitans tibetensis MP203(T) (98.26 % sequence similarity). The major respiratory quinone was MK-10. The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and an unidentified glycolipid. The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C-15:0, iso-C-16:0, anteiso-C-17:0 and anteiso-C-15:1 A. The diagnostic amino acid was 2,4-diaminobutyric acid and whole-cell sugars were xylose, rhamnose and mannose. The DNA G+C content of strain RP-3-7(T) was 66.9 mol%. The average nucleotide identity and in silico DNA-DNA relatedness values between strain RP-3-7(T) and Glaciihabitans tibetensis MP203(T) were 73.79 and 20.1 %, respectively. Based on the polyphasic, genomic and phylogenetic data, strain RP-3-7 T represents a novel species of the genus Glaciihabitans, for which the name Glaciihabitans arcticus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is RP-3-7(T) (=KEMB 9005-731(T) =KACC 21151(T) =NBRC 113769(T)).