Cohnella cellulosilytica sp. nov., isolated from buffalo faeces

A cellulose-degrading bacterium, strain FCN3-3(T), was isolated from buffalo faeces collected in Nakhonnayok province, Thailand. The strain was characterized based on its phenotypic and genotypic characteristics. Strain FCN3-3(T) was a Gram-positive, aerobic, spore-forming, rod-shaped bacterium. It contained meso-diaminopimelic acid in cell-wall peptidoglycan. The major menaquinone was MK-7. Anteiso-C(15:0) (52.5%), iso-C(16:0) (18.9%) and C(16:0) (9.1%) were the predominant cellular fatty acids, and diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and lysyl-phosphatidylglycerol were the major phospholipids. The DNA G+C content was 58.0 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis using 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain FCN3-3(T) was affiliated to the genus Cohnella and was closely related to Cohnella phaseoli GSPC1(T), Cohnella luojiensis HY-22R(T) and Cohnella hongkongensis HKU3(T), with 97.2, 96.8 and 96.3% sequence similarity, respectively. Strain FCN3-3(T) could be clearly distinguished from all known species of the genus Cohnella by its physiological and biochemical characteristics as well as its phylogenetic position and level of DNA-DNA relatedness. Therefore, the strain represents a novel species of the genus Cohnella, for which the name Cohnella cellulosilytica sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain is FCN3-3(T) ( = KCTC 13645(T) = TISTR 1996(T) = PCU 323(T)).