Blastochloris gulmargensis sp. nov., isolated from an epilithic phototrophic biofilm

A novel Gram-negative, motile, bacteriochlorophyll b-containing purple non-sulfur bacterium, strain JA248(T), was isolated from phototrophic enrichments of a yellow-green epilithic biofilm sample collected from Gulmarg, India. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain JA248(T) was 63.8 mol%. A phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain JA248(T) had highest similarity to members of the genus Blastochloris and was closely related to Blastochloris sulfoviridis DSM 729(T) (98.5 % sequence similarity) and Blastochloris viridis DSM 133(T) (98.4 %) of the class Alphaproteobacteria. Strain JA248(T) was characterized based on polyphasic taxonomy, and distinct phenotypic and molecular differences based on DNA-DNA hybridization (relatedness of <46.5 % with the two species of the genus Blastochloris), multilocus sequence analysis, and phenotypic and chemotaxonomic evidence separated strain JA248(T) from other species of the genus Blastochloris. Strain JA248(T) therefore represents a novel species in the genus Blastochloris, for which the name Blastochloris gulmargensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is JA248(T) ( = JCM 14795(T)  = DSM 19786(T)).