Luteolibacter gellanilyticus sp. nov., a gellan-gum-degrading bacterium of the phylum Verrucomicrobia isolated from miniaturized diffusion chambers.

A novel chemo-organoheterotrophic bacterium, strain CB-286403, was isolated from a Mediterranean forest soil, collected at Sierra de Tejeda, Almijara and Alhama Natural Park, Spain, by using the Diffusion Sandwich System, a device with 384 miniature diffusion chambers. The 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses identified the isolate as a member of the genus Luteolibacter where the type strains Luteolibacterpohnpeiensis A4T-83 (GenBank acc. no. AB331895), Luteolibacteryonseiensis EBTL01 (JQ319003), Luteolibacterluojiensis DR4-30 (JN630810) and Luteolibacteralgae A5J-41-2 (AB331893) were the closest relatives with similarities of 97.0, 96.3, 96.3 and 94.5 %, respectively. The novel isolate was characterized as a Gram-stain-negative, non-motile, short-rod-shaped bacterium. The strain showed a positive response for catalase and cytochrome-c oxidase, divided by binary fission and/or budding, and exhibited an aerobic metabolism. Strain CB-286403 showed a mesophilic and neutrophilic growth range and showed a nutritional preference for simple sugars and complex protein substrates. Major fatty acids included iso-C14 : 0, C16 : 0, C16 : 1ω7c/iso-C15 : 0 2-OH and anteiso-C15 : 0. The predominant respiratory quinone was MK-9. Polar lipids comprised major amounts of phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglycerol and minor amounts of three unidentified lipids, a glycolipid, a phospholipid and a phosphoglycolipid. Based on a polyphasic taxonomic characterization, strain CB-286403 represents a novel species of the genus Luteolibacter, for which the name Luteolibacter gellanilyticus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CB-286403 (=DSM 28998=CECT 8659).