Pontibacter aurantiacus sp. nov. isolated from hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) contaminated soil

Strain NP1T, a Gram-stain-negative, orange, rod-shaped bacterium was isolated from hexacholorocyclohexane (HCH)-contaminated soil sediment samples collected from Ummari village, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. The results of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that NP1T clustered with members of the genus Pontibacter of the order Cytophagales, family Cytophagaceae and phylum Bacteriodetes. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with type strains of members of the genus Pontibacter ranged from 98.57 to 93.95 % with Pontibacter odishensis JC-130T (98.57 %), Pontibacter korlensis X14-1T (97.82 %), Pontibacter litorisediminisYKTF-7T (97.42 %) and Pontibacter virosus W-14T (97.01 %) as the closest neighbours. Cells of NP1T were aerobic, motile and oxidase- and catalase-positive. NP1T was capable of hydrolysis of gelatin, aesculin and starch and reduced nitrates to nitrogen. The major fatty acids of NP1T were summed feature 4 and iso-C15 : 0. The polar lipid profile of NP1T showed the presence of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), unknown glycolipids and unknown aminolipids. Menaquinone-7 (MK-7) was the predominant respiratory quinone and sym-homospermidine was found to be the predominant polyamine in NP1T. The DNA G+C content of NP1T was 52.1±0.7 mol%. The levels of DNA-DNA relatedness of NP1T to P. odishensis JC-130T, P. korlensis X14-1T, P. litorisediminis YKTF-7T and P. virosus W14T were 44.9±0.6 %, 40.5±0.4 %, 34.4±0.7 % and 33.4±0.5 % respectively. Based on the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, physiological and biochemical evidence and DNA-DNA hybridization results, it is proposed that NP1T represents a novel species of the genus Pontibacter, for which the name Pontibacter aurantiacus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NP1T (KCTC 42943T=CCM 8697T=MCC 2931T).