Chryseobacterium reticulitermitis sp. nov., isolated from the gut of Reticulitermes aculabialis.

A Gram-stain-negative, non-motile, aerobic and rod-shaped bacterium, strain Ra1T, was isolated from the gut of a wood-feeding lower termite, Reticulitermes aculabialis. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the strain was closely related to Chryseobacterium rigui JCM 18078T (96.7 % similarity). Growth was observed at 15-45 °C (optimum 30 °C), at pH 6.0-9.0 (optimum pH 8.0) and in the presence of 0-2 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum 0 %). The DNA G+C content of strain Ra1T was 39.9 mol%. Cells contained menaquinone MK-6 as the sole respiratory quinone and the major fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0, iso-C17 : 0, summed feature 3 (comprising C16 : 1ω6c and/or C16 : 1ω7c) and summed feature 9 (comprising C16 : 0 10-methyl and/or iso-C17 : 1ω9c). The predominant polyamine was sym-homospermidine. The cellular polar lipids consisted of one phosphatidylethanolamine, three unidentified aminolipids, one unidentified phospholipid and one unidentified lipid. Based on phenotypic, genotypic and phylogenetic studies, it is concluded that strain Ra1T represents a novel species of the genus Chryseobacterium, for which the name Chryseobacterium reticulitermitis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Ra1T (=CCTCC AB 2015431T=KCTC 52230T).