Labrys methylaminiphilus sp. nov., a novel facultatively methylotrophic bacterium from a freshwater lake sediment

A new bacterial isolate from a methylamine enrichment culture is described, representing a novel species of facultatively methylotrophic bacteria. The non-motile bacterium is Gram-negative, replicates by budding and does not form endospores. The isolate utilizes methylated amines, as well as a variety of monosaccharides, disaccharides, amino acids, organic acids, aromatic compounds and alcohols as substrates, but does not utilize methanol. Growth factors are not required, although yeast extract stimulates growth. The major components of the fatty acid profile are C(18 : 1)omega7c, C(19 : 0) cyclo and C(16 : 0). The dominant cellular phospholipids are phosphatidyl acid, phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine. The G + C content of the DNA is 65.7 +/- 0.3 mol%. 16S rRNA gene-based phylogenetic analysis revealed that the novel isolate belongs to the alpha-Proteobacteria and is closely related to the only representative of the genus Labrys, Labrys monachus (97.4 % sequence similarity). However, the level of DNA-DNA relatedness with L. monachus is less than 3 %, justifying the placement of this isolate into a novel species of the genus Labrys. The name Labrys methylaminiphilus sp. nov. is proposed (type strain JLW10(T) = ATCC BAA-1080(T) = DSM 16812(T)).