Flavobacterium sufflavum sp. nov., isolated from a freshwater lake.

A bacterial strain, BBQ-12, was isolated from a freshwater lake in Taiwan. The strain was Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic, motile by gliding, rod-shaped and formed yellow colonies. Optimal growth occurred at 25 °C, pH 6 and in the absence of NaCl. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences and coding sequences of 92 protein clusters indicated that strain BBQ-12 formed a phylogenetic lineage in the genus Flavobacterium. Strain BBQ-12 was most closely related to Flavobacterium fluminis 3R17 with 98.1 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity. Strain BBQ-12 showed 74.4-83.1 % average nucleotide identity and 16.0-21.8 % digital DNA-DNA hybridization identity with the type strains of other closely related Flavobacterium species. Strain BBQ-12 contained iso-C15 : 0, summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω6c and/or C16 : 1ω7c) and anteiso-C15 : 0 as the predominant fatty acids. The polar lipid profile consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, four uncharacterized aminophospholipids and three uncharacterized phospholipids. The major polyamine was homospermidine. The major isoprenoid quinone was MK-6. The DNA G+C content of the genomic DNA was 34.2 mol%. Differential phenotypic properties, together with the phylogenetic inference, demonstrate that strain BBQ-12 should be classified as a novel species of the genus Flavobacterium, for which the name Flavobacteriumsufflavum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is BBQ-12 (=BCRC 81049=LMG 30051=KCTC 52809).