Sphingobacterium tenebrionis sp. nov., isolated from intestine of mealworm

A bacterial strain designated PU5- 4T was isolated from the mealworm (the larvae of Tenebrio molitor) intestines. It was identified to be Gram- stain- negative, strictly aerobic, rod- shaped, non- motile, and non- spore- forming. Strain PU5- 4T was observed to grow at 10-40 degrees C, at pH 7.0-10.0, and in the presence of 0-3.0 % (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain PU5- 4T should be assigned to the genus Sphingobacterium. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity analysis showed that strain PU5- 4T was closely related to the type strains of Sphingobacterium lactis DSM 22361T (98.49 %), Sphingobacterium endophyticum NYYP31T (98.11 %), Sphingobacterium soli NCCP 698T (97.69 %) and Sphingobacterium olei HAL-9T (95.73 %). The predominant isoprenoid quinone is MK- 7. The major fatty acids were identified as iso- C15:0, iso-C17:03- OH and summed feature 3 (C16: 1 omega 7c and/or C16:1 omega 6c) and summed feature 9 (iso- C17: 0 omega 9c). The polar lipids are phosphatidylethanolamine, one unidentified phospholipid, and six unidentified lipids. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain PU5- 4T is 40.24 mol%. The average nucleotide identity of strain PU5- 4T exhibited respective values of 73.88, 73.37, 73.36 and 70.84 % comparing to the type strains of S. lactis DSM 22361T, S. soli NCCP 698T, S. endophyticum NYYP31T and S. olei HAL-9T, which are below the cut- off level (95-96 %) for species delineation. Based on the above results, strain PU5- 4T represents a novel species of the genus Sphingobacterium, for which the name Sphingobacterium temoinsis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is PU5- 4T (=CGMCC 1.61908T=JCM 36663T).