Paenibacillus cellulositrophicus sp. nov., a cellulolytic bacterium from Thai soil

Abstract

A cellulolytic bacterium, strain P2-1T, isolated from soil in Thailand, was characterized using a taxonomic approach based on phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics and the 16S rRNA gene sequence. The novel strain was Gram-positive, facultatively anaerobic, spore-forming and rod-shaped. It contained meso-diaminopimelic as the diagnostic diamino acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan. The DNA G+C content was 52.7 mol%. The major isoprenoid quinone was MK-7. Anteiso-C15:0 and iso-C16:0 were the dominant cellular fatty acids. Phylogenetic analyses using the 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that the novel strain was affiliated to the genus Paenibacillus. Strain P2-1T was closely related to Paenibacillus cineris KCTC 3998T, P. favisporus KCTC 3910T and P. rhizosphaerae KCTC 13015T with 96.3-96.5% gene sequence similarity. DNA-DNA relatedness, physiological characteristics and some biochemical characteristics clearly distinguished strain P2-1T from related species of the genus Paenibacillus. Therefore, strain P2-1T represents a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus cellulositrophicus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is P2-1T (=KCTC 13135T=PCU 305T=TISTR 1888T).