Flavobacterium cerinum sp. nov., isolated from Arctic tundra soil

In the present paper, we describe a new species of the genus Flavobacterium, designated as strain 1E403^T, which was isolated from a soil sample collected from the Arctic. Strain 1E403^T was Gram-stain-negative, yellow-pigmented, rod-shaped, gliding and aerobic. Growth occurred at 4-37 °C (optimum, 28 °C), pH 6.0-9.0 (pH 7.0) and with 0-2 % (w/v) NaCl (0 %) on modified marine agar 2216. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed that strain 1E403^T was affiliated with the genus Flavobacterium and was more closely related to Flavobacterium subsaxonicum DSM 21790^T (96.6 %) than to other species. In silico genomic comparisons, including average nucleotide identity and the digital DNA-DNA hybridization values, showed 73.9 % and 18.8 % identity to the closest relative Flavobacterium subsaxonicum DSM 21790^T, respectively. The average amino acid identity value between strain 1E403^T and Flavobacterium aquatile DSM 1132^T was 63.8 %. The DNA G+C content of the strain was 36.8 %, while the sole respiratory quinone was menaquinone-6. Iso-C_15 : 0 and summed feature 3 (C_16 : 1ω7c and/or C_16 : 1ω6c) were the major fatty acids (>10 %) of strain 1E403^T. The polar lipid profile of strain 1E403^T contained phosphatidylethanolamine, four unidentified aminolipids and two unidentified phospholipids. Based on the phenotypic characteristics, chemotaxonomic characteristics and phylogenetic inference, strain 1E403^T represents a novel species of the genus Flavobacterium, and we propose the name Flavobacterium cerinum sp. nov. The type strain of Flavobacterium cerinum sp. nov. is 1E403^T (=KCTC 62960^T=MCCC 1H00356^T).