Cohnella algarum sp. nov., isolated from a freshwater green alga Paulinella chromatophora.

A Gram-stain-positive, facultatively aerobic and endospore-forming bacterium, designated strain Pch-40, was isolated from a freshwater green alga, Paulinella chromatophora. Cells were motile rods with a monotrichous polar flagellum showing catalase- and oxidase-positive reactions. Strain Pch-40 grew at 20-50 °C (optimum, 37-40 °C), at pH 5.0-11.0 (optimum, pH 7.0) and in the presence of 0-4.0 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0 %). Menaquinone-7 was detected as the sole isoprenoid quinone. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain Pch-40 was 55.6 mol%. The major cellular fatty acids of strain Pch-40 were C16 : 0, iso-C16 : 0, anteiso-C15 : 0 and anteiso-C17 : 0. The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain Pch-40 clearly belonged to the genus Cohnella of the family Paenibacillaceae. Strain Pch-40 was most closely related to Cohnella rhizosphaerae CSE-5610 with a 96.1 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity. The phenotypic and chemotaxonomic features and the phylogenetic inference clearly suggested that strain Pch-40 represents a novel species of the genus Cohnella, for which the name Cohnellaalgarum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is strain Pch-40 (=KACC 19279=JCM 32033).