Chryseobacterium nepalense sp nov., isolated from oil-contaminated soil

During the study of hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria in the oil-contaminated soil of Biratnagar, Morang, Nepal, a yellowcoloured, Gram-staining-negative, aerobic, non-motile, and rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain C-5-3(T), was isolated. This strain was characterized taxonomically by a polyphasic approach. Based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain C-5-3(T) belonged to the genus Chryseobacterium and was closely related to Chryseobacterium profundimaris DY46(T) (98.19% sequence similarity), Chryseobacterium takakiae AG1-2(T) (98.15% sequence similarity), Chryseobacterium taiwanense BCRC 17412(T) (98.14% sequence similarity), Chryseobacterium camelliae THG C4-1(T) (97.73% sequence similarity) and Chryseobacterium hispalense DSM 25574(T) (97.60% sequence similarity). The predominant respiratory quinone was menaquinone-6, and phosphatidylethanolamine was the major polar lipid. The predominant fatty acids of strain C-5-3(T) were iso-C-15 : 0, summed feature 3 (C-16 : 1 omega 7c and/or C-16 : 1 omega 6c), iso-C-17 : 0 3-OH and summed feature 9 (iso-C-17 : 1 omega 9c and/or C-16 : 0 10-methyl). The genomic DNA G+C content of this novel strain was 38.6 mol%. The DNA-DNA relatedness between strain C-5- 3(T) and Chryseobacterium profundimaris JCM 19801(T), C. takakiae DSM 26898(T), C. taiwanense KACC 13400(T), C. camelliae KACC 16985(T) and C. hispalense DSM 25574(T) was 53.3, 42.7, 47.3, 33.0 and 28.0 %, respectively. The morphological, physiological, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analyses clearly distinguished this strain from its closest phylogenetic neighbours. Thus, strain C-5-3(T) represents a novel species of the genus Chryseobacterium, for which the name Chryseobacterium nepalense sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is C-5-3 T (=KEMB 9005-411(T) =KACC 18907(T) =JCM 31469(T)).