Paludisphaera soli sp. nov., a new member of the family Isosphaeraceae isolated from high altitude soil in the Western Himalaya.

A novel strain of Planctomycetes, designated JC670, was isolated from a high altitude (~ 2900 m above sea level) soil sample collected from Garhwal region in the Western Himalaya. Colonies of this strain were observed to be light pink coloured with spherical to oval shaped cells having crateriform structures distributed all over the cell surface. The cells divide by budding. Strain JC670 was found to grow well at pH 7.0 and pH 8.0 and to tolerate up to 2% NaCl (w/v). MK6 was the only respiratory quinone identified. The major fatty acids of strain JC670 were identified as Cω9c, C and C, and phosphatidylcholine, two unidentified phospholipids and six unidentified lipids are present as the polar lipids. The polyamines putrescine and sym-homospermidine were detected. Strain JC670 shows high 16S rRNA gene sequence identity (95.4%) with Paludisphaera borealis PX4. The draft genome size of strain JC670 is 7.97 Mb, with G + C content of 70.4 mol%. Based on phylogenetic analyses with the sequences of ninety-two core genes, low dDDH value (20.6%), low gANI (76.8%) and low AAI (69.1%) results, differential chemotaxonomic and physiological properties, strain JC670 (= KCTC 72850 = NBRC 114339) is recognised as the type strain of a new species of the genus Paludisphaera, for which we propose the name Paludisphaera soli sp. nov.