Sphingomonas hankookensis sp. nov., isolated from a wastewater

Abstract

A Gram-negative, non-motile, rod-shaped bacterial strain, ODN7T, was isolated from a wastewater treatment plant in Korea, and its taxonomic position was investigated by use of a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Strain ODN7T grew optimally at around pH 7.5 and 30 6C and in the presence of 0-0.5% (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain ODN7T fell within the cluster comprising species of the genus Sphingomonas, clustering with Sphingomonas panni C52T, with which it shared highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (98.9 %). The chemotaxonomic properties of strain ODN7T were consistent with those of the genus Sphingomonas. The predominant ubiquinone was Q-10, and the major fatty acids were C18:1ω7c, C16:1ω7c and/or iso-C15:0 2-OH, and C16:0. Major polar lipids were sphingoglycolipid, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine. The DNA G + C content of strain ODN7T was 67.2 mol%. Strain ODN7T exhibited levels of DNA-DNA relatedness of 15-32% to the type strains of phylogenetically related Sphingomonas species and could be differentiated from these species based on differences in phenotypic characteristics. On the basis of the data presented, strain ODN7T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Sphingomonas, for which the name Sphingomonas hankookensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is ODN7T (=KCTC 22579T=CCUG 57509T).