Planococcus soli sp. nov., isolated from antarctic soil

A novel bacterial strain, designated C23(T), was isolated from a soil sample obtained from King George Island, Antarctica. Phenotypic, phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic and molecular analyses were performed on the new isolate. Strain C23(T) formed orange colonies on agar plates and was Gram-stain-positive. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain C23(T) was a member of the genus Planococcus and was closely related to Planococcus salinarum DSM 23802(T) (98.5% sequence similarity), Planococcus halotolerans SCU63(T) (98.3%), Planomicrobium okeanokoites IFO 12526(T) (98.3%), Planococcus donghaensis DSM 22276(T) (98.3%) and Planococcus maitriensisi S1(T) (98.2%). This organism grew at 2-38 degrees C (optimum, 25-30 degrees C), pH 6.0-12.0 (optimum, pH 7.5) and 0-14% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 2%). The predominant menaquinone was MK-8. The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C-15:0, iso-C-14:0 and C-16:1 omega 7c alcohol. The whole genome DNA of C23(T) was deposited in the GenBank database under accession number WXYN00000000. According to the whole genome, the DNA G + C content of strain C23(T) was determined to be 46.8 mol%; the average nucleotide identity (ANI) of strain C23(T) and P. salinarum DSM 23802(T), P. halotolerans SCU63(T), P. okeanokoites IFO 12526(T), P. donghaensis DSM 22276(T) and P. maitriensis S1(T) were 74.1%, 74.3%, 74.1%, 78.8 and 73.6%; the digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) values between strain C23(T) and the five closely related species were 19.7%, 19.6%, 19.5%, 22.4 and 18.6%; the average amino acid identity (AAI) values between strain C23(T) and the five closely related species were 73.9%, 74.5%, 74.4%, 84.6 and 74.5%. All data were below the threshold range for species determination. Based on the polyphasic taxonomic study, we considered that strain C23(T) represented a novel species of the genus Planococcus for which the name Planococcus soli sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is C23(T) (= KCTC 33644(T) = CGMCC 1.15115(T)).