Isolation of bacteria of the genus Variovorax from the Thioploca mats of Lake Baikal

Three strains of gram-negative bacteria were isolated from the mats of colorless sulfur bacteria Thioploca (Lake Baikal). The cells of new strains are motile with peritrichous flagella. Bacteria are aerobic, obligate chemoorganoheterotrophs growing within the pH range of 3.0–8.8 with the optimum at 8.3 and within the temperature range of 5–42°C with the optimum at 28°C. The cells contained menaquinones MK-8 H2 as the major component, as well as MK-7 H2 (less than 15%), while the content of ubiquinone Q8 was at least an order of magnitude lower. The G+C content of DNA in the new strains varied from 67.4 to 69.9 mol %. The level of DNA-DNA hybridization between the strains ranged from 80 to 94%, indicating that all the isolates belonged to one species. Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene nucleotide sequences of the type strain (Gen-Bank HQ400611) revealed close homologues among the known species of the genus Variovorax: 98% resemblance with the type strains of the species V. paradoxus, V. soli, V. ginsengisoli, and V. boronicumulans and 96% similarity with the type strain of V. dokdonensis. However, since the isolates differed significantly in the composition of fatty acids and isoprenoid quinones from the nearest neighbors in the phylogenetic tree, they cannot be related implicitly to the known species.