Flexivirga aerilata sp. nov., Isolated from an Automobile Air Conditioning System

A novel light-yellow-coloured, Gram-stain-positive, nearly-coccoid, aerobic bacterium, designated strain ID2601ST was isolated from a car evaporator core collected from South Korea. Strain ID2601ST was catalase positive and oxidase negative, able to grow at pH 6.0–8.0, temperature 20–45 °C, and 0–6.0% (w/v) NaCl concentration. The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain ID2601ST belonged to the genus Flexivirga, with the nearest phylogenetic neighbour being Flexivirga endophytica YIM 7505T (97.9% sequence similarity). The strain comprised diphosphatidylglycerol as the main polar lipid; MK-8(H4) as a predominant respiratory quinone; serine, alanine, glycine, glutamic acid, and lysine as main components of peptidoglycan and iso-C16:0, summed feature 9 (iso-C17:1ω9c and/or C16:0 10-methyl), anteiso-C17:0, and C17:0 10-methyl as the major fatty acids. The average nucleotide identity (ANI) values between strain ID2601ST and the closest species (Flexivirga endophytica YIM 7505T and Flexivirga caeni BO-16T) were < 78%. The in silico DNA–DNA hybridization (dDDH) values of strain ID2601ST with the closest species were < 22%. These observations were below the threshold values of 95% (for ANI) and 70% (for dDDH) used for species delineation. The DNA G+C content was 69.8 mol%. Based on the polyphasic taxonomic data, the novel species Flexivirga aerilata sp. nov. is proposed with the type strain ID2601ST (=KCTC 49353T =NBRC 114622T).