Massilia violaceinigra sp. nov., a novel purple-pigmented bacterium isolated from glacier permafrost.

A Gram-stain-negative, motile and rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain B2, which can synthesize purple pigments of violacein and dexyoviolacein, was isolated from Tianshan glacier in Xinjiang, China. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that it was grouped in the genus Massilia with Massilia glaciei B448-2, Massilia eurypsychrophila B528-3 and Massilia psychrophila B1555-1 as its closest relatives (98.2, 97.9 and 97.0 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, respectively). Genomic relatedness between strain B2 and its closest relatives was evaluated using average nucleotide identity, digital DNA-DNA hybridization and average amino acid identity, with values of 77.93-85.08 %, 22.4-23.4 % and 71.54-72.99 %, respectively. Q-8 was the major ubiquinone. The major fatty acids (>5 %) of strain B2 were summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c), C12 : 0 and summed feature 8 (C18 : 1ω7c and/or C18 : 1ω6c). The major polar lipids included phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglycerol. The DNA G+C content of strain B2 was 63.51 mol%. Based on genomic relatedness, physiological, biochemical and chemotaxonomic data, strain B2 (=CGMCC 1.6993=DSM 19531=KCTC 32446) is considered to represent a novel species within the genus Massilia, for which the name Massilia violaceinigra sp. nov. is proposed.