Ramlibacter monticola sp. nov., isolated from forest soil.

During a study of bacterial diversity in forest soil, strain G-3-2, a Gram-stain-negative, light brown-coloured, non-motile, rod- or coccoid-shaped bacterium, was isolated. It was able to grow at 15-37 °C, at pH 5.5-10.0 and at 0-0.5 % (w/v) NaCl concentration. The strain was taxonomically characterized by a polyphasic approach. Based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain G-3-2 belongs to the genus Ramlibacter and is closely related to Ramlibacter ginsenosidimutans BXN5-27 (98.69 % sequence similarity), Ramlibacter henchirensis TMB834 (96.98 %), Ramlibacter tataouinensis TTB310 (96.49 %) and Ramlibacter solisilvae 5-10 (96.42 %). The only respiratory quinone was ubiquinone-8. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglycerol. The predominant fatty acids of strain G-3-2 were C16 : 0, summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c), C17 : 0 cyclo, summed feature 8 (C18 : 1ω7c and/or C18 : 1ω6c) and C10 : 0 3-OH. The genomic DNA G+C content of this novel strain was 68.9 mol%. The DNA-DNA relatedness between strain G-3-2 and R. ginsenosidimutans BXN5-27 was 44.7 %, which falls below the threshold value of 70 % for the strain to be considered as novel. The morphological, physiological, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analyses clearly distinguished this strain from its closest phylogenetic neighbours. Thus, strain G-3-2 represents a novel species of the genus Ramlibacter, for which the name Ramlibacter monticola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is G-3-2 (=KEMB 9005-573=KACC 19175=JCM 31918).