Aquabacterium terrae sp. nov., isolated from soil

A yellow-colored bacterial strain, designated S2T was isolated from soil in South Korea. Cells of strain S2T were strictly aerobic, Gram-stain-negative, motile with single polar flagellum, rod-shaped, oxidase and catalase-negative. Growth occurs at 10–37 °C (optimum, 28 °C), pH 5.0–9.0 (optimum, pH 6.5–7.0) and 0–3% NaCl (w/v). Strain S2T consisted of summed feature 3 (iso-C15:0 2-OH and/or C16:1ω7c), C16:0 and summed feature 8 (C18:1ω7c and/or C18:1ω6c) as major fatty acids. The sole respiratory quinone was Q-8. The polar lipid profile consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine and an unidentified lipid. The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain S2T is phylogenetically closest to Aquabacterium pictum W35T (98.4% sequence similarity). The genome of strain S2T was 8,039,486 bp with 56 scaffolds. The genome consisted of 10 putative biosynthetic gene clusters that are responsible for various secondary metabolites. Genomic DNA G + C content of strain S2T was 69.4%. The average nucleotide identity and in silico DNA–DNA hybridization values between strain S2T and phylogenetically related taxa were ≤ 77.9 and ≤ 21.4%, and respectively. The results of genotypic and phenotypic data showed that strain S2T could be distinguished from its phylogenetically related species and represents a novel species in the genus Aquabacterium, for which the name Aquabacterium terrae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is S2T (= KCTC 72741 T = NBRC 114609 T).