Pontibacter chinhatensis sp. nov., isolated from pond sediment containing discarded hexachlorocyclohexane isomer...

A halotolerant, Gram-negative, rod-shaped and light-red-pigmented bacterium, designated LP51(T), was isolated from pond sediment near a hexachlorocyclohexane dumpsite located at Chinhat, Lucknow, India. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain LP51(T) formed a distinct phyletic clade along with the members of the genus Pontibacter. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to members of the genus Pontibacter ranged from 94.2 to 99.4%. The cells were motile, aerobic and catalase- and oxidase-positive. The major fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0 (17.8%), iso-C15 : 0 3-OH (8.8%), iso-C17 : 0 3-OH (5.7%), summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c; 6.5%) and summed feature 4 (iso-C17 : 1 I and/or anteiso-C17  : 1 B; 30.7%). The polar lipid profile of strain LP51(T) showed the presence of phosphatidylethanolamine, an unidentified aminophospholipid, unknown aminolipids, unknown polar lipids and unknown glycolipids. DNA-DNA relatedness of strain LP51(T) with respect to the most closely related type strain, Pontibacter korlensis X14-1(T), was 47.2%. On the basis of this information, it is proposed that the isolate be assigned to a novel species of the genus Pontibacter, for which the name Pontibacter chinhatensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is LP51(T) ( = CCM 8436(T) = MCC 2070(T)).