Chitinophaga dinghuensis sp. nov., isolated from soil.

A Gram-reaction-negative, aerobic, non-motile bacterial strain, DHOC24T, was isolated from the forest soil of Dinghushan Biosphere Reserve, Guangdong Province, PR China. Strain DHOC24T underwent a shape change during the course of culture from long filamentous cells (10-30 × 0.4-0.5 μm) at 2 days to coccobacilli (0.5-1.0 × 0.7-1.0 μm) at 15 days after inoculation. It grew optimally at 28-33 °C and pH 6.5-7.5. The major quinone of strainDHOC24T was MK-7, the main fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0, C16 : 1ω5c and iso-C17 : 0 3-OH and the DNA G+C content was 43.1 mol%. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, the strain was found to be affiliated with members of the genus Chitinophaga, but was clearly separated from established species of the genus. Strain DHOC24T was most closely related to Chitinophaga jiangningensis JN53T (98.3 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity) and Chitinophaga terrae KP01T (97.9 %). DNA-DNA hybridization study showed relatively low relatedness values (32.1 %) of strain DHOC24T with C. jiangningensis JN53T. The phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data showed that strain DHOC24T represents a novel species of the genus Chitinophaga, for which the name Chitinophaga dinghuensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is DHOC24T ( = CGMCC 1.12995T = DSM 29821T).