Sphingomonas gimensis sp. nov., a novel Gram-negative bacterium isolated from abandoned lead-zinc ore mine

A novel bacterial strain designated 9PNM-6(T) was isolated from an abandoned lead-zinc ore mine site in Meizhou, Guangdong Province, China. The isolate was found to be Gram-negative, rod-shaped, orange-pigmented, strictly aerobic, oxidase- and catalase-positive. Growth occurred at 0-4 % NaCl (w/v, optimum, 0 %), at pH 6.0-8.0 (optimum, pH 7.0) and at 15-32 °C (optimum, 28-30 °C). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities showed that strain 9PNM-6(T) belongs to the genus Sphingomonas, with the highest sequence similarities with Sphingomonas jejuensis NBRC 107775(T) (99.7 %), Sphingomonas koreensis KCTC 2882(T) (95.1 %) and Sphingomonas dokdonesis KCTC 12541(T) (95.1 %). The chemotaxonomic characteristics of strain 9PNM-6(T) were consistent with those of the genus Sphingomonas. The predominant respiratory quinone was identified as ubiquinone Q-10, the major polyamine as sym-homospermidine, and the major cellular fatty acids as C18:1 ω7c, C16:0, C16:1 ω7c and/or C16:1 ω6c and C14:0 2-OH. The major polar lipids are sphingoglycolipid, phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatideylcholine, an unidentified phospholipid and four unidentified aminolipids. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain 9PNM-6(T) was determined to be 69.2 ± 0.6 mol%. Based on comparative analyses of morphological, physiological and chemotaxonomic data, and levels of DNA-DNA relatedness values, strain 9PNM-6(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Sphingomonas, for which the name Sphingomonas gimensis sp. nov. (Type strain 9PNM-6(T) = GIMCC 1.655(T) = CGMCC 1.12671(T) = DSM 27569(T)) is proposed.