Myroides guanonis sp. nov., isolated from prehistoric paintings

A novel psychrotolerant, strictly aerobic, non-motile, rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated IM13(T), was isolated from a sample taken from prehistoric guano paintings in Magura Cave, northwest Bulgaria and subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. Strain IM13(T) formed yellow colonies on LB agar plates and was Gram-staining-negative, heterotrophic and alkalitolerant. It grew optimally at pH 7.5 and 30 °C in the absence of NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis of the whole 16S rRNA gene revealed that strain IM13(T) branched with representatives of the genus Myroides with sequence similarity of 93-94 % with other species of the genus. The novel isolate contained iso-C15 : 0 (49.1 %), iso-C17 : 1ω9c (18.2 %) and iso-C17 : 0 3-OH (14.0 %) as dominant fatty acids. The DNA G+C content of strain IM13(T) was 33.5 mol%. Based on phylogenetic inference and phenotypic characteristics, it was concluded that strain IM13(T) represents a novel species of the genus Myroides, for which the name Myroides guanonis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is IM13(T) ( = DSM 26542(T) = NBIMCC 8736(T)).