Tepidamorphus gemmatus gen. nov., sp. nov., a slightly thermophilic member of the Alphaproteobacteria.

Two isolates, with an optimum growth temperature of about 45-50 degrees C and an optimum pH for growth between 7.5 and 8.5, were recovered from a hot spring in the Furnas area on the Island of São Miguel in the Azores. Strains form irregular rod-shaped cells are motile and stain Gram negative. The cells multiply by budding. These strains are non-pigmented, strictly aerobic, catalase and oxidase positive. These organisms assimilated carbohydrates, organic acids and amino acids. The major fatty acids are 19:0(cyclo omega8c) and 18:0. Ubiquinone 10 is the major respiratory quinone. The major polar lipids are diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylcholine in addition to one unidentified aminolipid and one unidentified glycolipid. Bacteriochlorophyll a, puf genes and RuBisCo genes were not detected. Analysis of the 16SrRNA gene shows the strains to cluster with species of the genera Afifella, Rhodobium, Anderseniella and Amorphus to which they have sequence similarity in the range 93-94%. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, physiological and biochemical characteristics we describe a new species of a novel genus represented by strain CB-27A(T) (=DSM 19345(T)=LMG 24113(T)) for which we propose the name Tepidamorphus gemmatus.