Parablastomonas arctica gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from high Arctic glacial till

A pale yellow, aerobic bacterium, strain M0-2(T), was isolated from a till sample. Its taxonomic position was investigated by using a polyphasic approach. Cells were Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped and motile. Cells reproduced by budding or asymmetrical cell division. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain M0-2(T) belonged to the family Sphingomonadaceae and was closely related to species of the genera Novosphingobium (96.4-92.0%) and Blastomonas (94.6%), Sphingopyxis witflariensis W-50(T) (94.0%), Sphingosinicella soli KSL-125(T) (93.6%) and Sphingomonas astaxanthinifaciens TDMA-17(T) (93.5%). Ubiquinone-10 (Q-10) was the predominant respiratory quinone. The major fatty acids were summed feature 8 (comprising C18:1ω7c and/or C18:1ω6c, 31.9%), summed feature 3 (comprising C16:1ω7c and/or C16:1ω6c, 19.8%) and C14:0 2-OH (8.9%). Sphingoglycolipid, phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylcholine were the major polar lipids. Spermidine was the major polyamine observed in the cell. The genomic DNA G+C content was 47.5 mol%. On the basis of phylogenetic relationships and the low DNA G+C content compared with most other genera of the family Sphingomonadaceae, combined with phenotypic and chemotaxonomic data, strain M0-2(T) is considered to represent a novel species in a new genus in the family Sphingomonadaceae for which the name Parablastomonas arctica gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Parablastomonas arctica gen. nov., sp. nov. is M0-2(T) ( =CCTCC AB 2012968(T) = NRRL B-59110(T)).