Larkinella soli sp. nov., isolated from biological soil crusts

A novel bacterial strain, designated MIMbqt9^T, was isolated from biological soil crusts collected in Erdos Plateau in Inner Mongolia. Cells were light pink, rod-shaped, aerobic, Gram-reaction-negative, motile by gliding, oxidase- and catalase-positive. Cell growth could be observed at 5-40 °C (optimum at 30 °C), at pH 4.0-6.0 (optimum at 6.0) and with 1 % (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that strain MIMbqt9^T was most closely related to the members of genus Larkinella, including L. bovis M2T2B15^T (92.06 %), L. arboricola Z0532^T (92.00 %) and L. insperata LMG 22510^T (91.94 %). The major cellular fatty acids of strain MIMbqt9^T were C16 : 1ω5c, iso-C15 : 0 and iso-C17 : 0 3-OH. Polar lipids of the strain MIMbqt9^T were mainly composed of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylserine (PS), two unidentified aminolipids (AL1 and AL2) and two unidentified phospholipids (PL1 and PL2). Menaquinone 7 (MK-7) was the major respiratory quinone. The G+C content of the chromosomal DNA was 57.63 mol%. On the basis of morphology, physiology, fatty acid composition, phylogeny and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, the isolates are assigned to a novel species of the genus Larkinella, for which the name Larkinella soli sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is MIMbqt9^T (=MCCC 1K01309^T=KCTC 42800^T).