sp. nov., a novel hexadecane-degrading species isolated from plastic waste.

Strain NGK65, a novel hexadecane degrading, non-motile, Gram-positive, rod-to-coccus shaped, aerobic bacterium, was isolated from plastic polluted soil sampled at a landfill. Strain NGK65 hydrolysed casein, gelatin, urea and was catalase-positive. It optimally grew at 28 °C, in 0-1% NaCl and at pH 7.5-8.0. Glycerol, d-glucose, arbutin, aesculin, salicin, potassium 5-ketogluconate, sucrose, acetate, pyruvate and hexadecane were used as sole carbon sources. The predominant membrane fatty acids were iso-C followed by iso-C and C 9. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol and hydroxyphosphatidylinositol. The cell-wall peptidoglycan type was A3γ, with ll-diaminopimelic acid and glycine as the diagnostic amino acids. MK 8 (H) was the predominant menaquinone. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain NGK65 belongs to the genus (phylum ), appearing most closely related to MJ31 (98.6%) and KSL-104 (98.3%). The genomic DNA G+C content of strain NGK65 was 68.2%. Strain NGK65 and the type strains of species involved in the analysis had average nucleotide identity values of 78.3-71.9% as well as digital DNA-DNA hybridization values between 22.5 and 19.7%, which clearly indicated that the isolate represents a novel species within the genus . Based on phenotypic and molecular characterization, strain NGK65 can clearly be differentiated from its phylogenetic neighbours to establish a novel species, for which the name sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NGK65 (=DSM 113112=NCCB 100846).