Identification of bacterial isolates from biofilters as Paracoccus alkenifer sp. nov. and Paracoccus solventivorans with emended description of Paracoccus solventivorans.

Two groups of strains isolated from biofilters for the treatment of waste gases were assigned to the genus Paracoccus by phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic methods. All type strains of the genus Paracoccus were compared with these groups using 16S rDNA sequence analysis, fatty acid patterns and physiological reaction profiles. For both groups, the nearest related reference species was Paracoccus solventivorans based on 16S rDNA sequence similarity. However, whereas one group of isolates was identified as a member of this species by fatty acid analysis and DNA-DNA hybridization, the other group was proposed as a new species, Paracoccus alkenifer sp. nov. Fatty acid analysis showed the unusual fatty acid 20:1cis13 instead of 19:0 cyclo11-12 for P. alkenifer and P. solventivorans, and 14:1cis7 instead of 12:1cis5 for P. alkenifer and Paracoccus kocurii. By means of a GC-MS method, diaminopimelic acid was detected for P. solventivorans. Based on these results we propose an emended description for the species P. solventivorans.