Massilia aromaticivorans sp. nov., a  BTEX Degrading Bacterium Isolated from Arctic Soil

A novel BTEX degrading bacterial strain, designated ML15P13T, was isolated from Arctic soil at the Svalbard Islands, Norway, using an enrichment culture technique. This isolate is Gram-negative, aerobic, motile with multiple flagella at one polar end, and rod-shaped. Growth was observed at 4–35 °C, pH 6.0–8.0, and 0–0.5% (w/v) NaCl. According to 16S rRNA gene analysis, strain ML15P13T was grouped with members of the genus Massilia and closely related to Massilia atriviolacea SODT (98.4%), Massilia violaceinigra B2T (98.3%), Massilia eurypsychrophila B528-3T (97.7%), Massilia glaciei B448-2T (97.7%), and Massilia psychrophila B115-1T (96.6%). Average nucleotide identity, digital DNA-DNA hybridization, and average amino acid identity between genome sequences of strain ML15P13T and the closely related species ranged from 75.8 to 84.3%, from 19.6 ± 1.0 to 21.6 ± 0.3%, and from 68.8 to 71.0%, respectively. The major fatty acids were C16:0, summed feature 3 (C16:1 ω6c and/or C16:1 ω7c), and summed feature 8 (C18:1 ω7c and/or C18:1 ω6c). Q-8 was the major ubiquinone. The polar lipid profile showed the presence of phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, one unidentified phospholipid, and five unidentified polar lipids. The G + C content of the genomic DNA was 64.2 mol%. Based on the results for genotypic and phenotypic study, we conclude that strain ML15P13T represents a novel species of the genus Massilia, for which the name Massilia aromaticivorans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is ML15P13T (= KACC 21773T = JCM 34089T).