Chitinophaga Flava Sp. Nov., Isolated from Monsoon Evergreen Broad-Leaved Forest Soil

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile strain, K3CV102501(T), was isolated from a soil sample collected from the monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forest of Dinghushan Biosphere Reserve located in Guangdong Province, PR China. The primal colony of strain K3CV102501(T)- was very similar to the fruiting body of myxobacteria on the original isolation plates. Young cultures of strain K3CV102501(T)- contained long (2-4x0.4-0.5 mu m) filamentous cells and divided into rod shapes (0.7-1.0x0.6-0.8 mu m) after 4 days of incubation at 28 degrees C. Strain K3CV102501(T)- grew at pH 6.0-9.5 (optimum, pH 6.5-7.5) and 742 degrees C (optimum, 28-35 degrees C). Phylogenetic analysis based on its 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that strain K3CV102501(T) belonged to the genus Chitinophaga and showed the highest similarity to C.hitinophaga jiangningensis JCM 19354(T )(96.9 %). The DNA G+C content of the type strain was 46.6 mol%. The major fatty acids (>10%) were iso-C-15:0, C-16:1 omega 5c and iso-C(17:0)3-OH. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine and an unidentified aminolipid. Menaquinone-7 was the predominant quinone. The phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data clearly showed that strain K3CV102501(T )represents a novel species of the genus Chitinophaga, for which the name Chitinophaga flava sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is K3CV102501(T)- (=KCTC 62435(T)=GDMCC 1.1325(T)).