Hymenobacter frigidus sp. nov., isolated from a glacier ice core.

A psychrophilic, Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped, red-pigmented bacterium, designated strain B1789, was isolated from an ice core of Muztagh Glacier on the Tibetan Plateau in China. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain B1789 was related to members of the genus Hymenobacter and had highest sequence similarity with Hymenobacter antarcticus JCM 17217 (97.9 %). The major menaquinone was MK-7 and the major polar lipid was phosphatidylethanolamine. The predominant fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C15 : 0 and summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c). The DNA G+C content was 59.4 mol%. In DNA-DNA hybridization tests, strain B1789 shared 42 % relatedness with H. antarcticus JCM 17217. Based on the results of phenotypic and chemotaxonomic tests, strain B1789 was considered as representing a novel species of the genus Hymenobacter, for which the name Hymenobacter frigidus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is B1789 (=JCM 30595=CGMCC 1.14966).