Skermanella mucosa sp. nov., isolated from crude oil contaminated soil.

A novel Gram-stain negative, small rod-shaped bacterium (strain 8-14-6) was isolated from hydrocarbon contaminated desert soil collected from Kuwait. Strain 8-14-6 grew at 5-37 °C, pH 6.0-8.8 and 0-2% (w/v) of NaCl concentration. Casein, starch, Tween 20 and Tween 80 were hydrolyzed while urea, chitin, DNA and carboxymethyl-cellulose were not hydrolyzed by strain 8-14-6. The major cellular fatty acids were identified as Cω6c/Cω7c, C and iso-CI/C3-OH. Strain 8-14-6 produced diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, an unidentified phospholipids, two unidentified lipids and five unidentified amino lipids as polar lipids. Genomic G+C content was 73.5 mol %. 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons indicated that strain 8-14-6 represents a member of the genus Skermanella within family Rhodospirillaceae of the class Alphaproteobacteria. Strain 8-14-6 has a sequence similarity of 98.9% with Skermanella rosea M1, 97.4% with Skermanella aerolata 5416T-32, 96.9% with Skermanella stibiiresistens SB22 and <95.4% with the other two known species of the genus Skermanella. The DNA-DNA relatedness values between strain 8-14-6 and the type strains of the closely related species were clearly below the 70% threshold. From the combination of phenotypic and genotypic characteristics and distinct phylogenetic position, the strain is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Skermanella, for which the name Skermanella mucosa sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 8-14-6 (=KEMB 2255-438 =JCM 31590).