Aureimonas leprariae sp. nov., Isolated from a Lepraria sp. Lichen

A Gram-negative, motile, aerobic and coccoid rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain YIM132180^T, was isolated from a Lepraria sp. lichen collected from Pu'er, Yunnan Province, China. The strain grew at 15-35 °C (optimum, 25-28 °C), at 0-2% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0-1%) and at pH 6.0-9.0 (optimum, pH 7.0). The 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that strain YIM132180^T had highest similarity (96.4%) with Aureimonas endophytica 2T4P-2-4^T, followed by Aureimonas ureilytica NBRC 106430^T (95.7%) and Aureimonas rubiginis CC-CFT034^T (95.6%). Phylogenetic analysis showed that the strain grouped with species of the genus Aureimonas. The genomic sequence was 4,779,519 bp and contained 4584 coding sequences (CDSs), 54 RNA genes, 3 complete rRNA genes and 47 tRNA genes. The major fatty acids (>10%) of strain YIM132180^T were C_18:1ω7c, C-_16:0 and C_19:0 cyclo ω8c. The predominant menaquinone was ubiquinone 10 (Q-10). The polar lipid profile comprised diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylmethylethanolamine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, unidentified phospholipid, amino lipid, lipid and most importantly sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerol (SQDG). Based on the draft genome sequence, the G +C content of strain YIM132180^T was 68.4 mol%. The results of the polyphasic taxonomic study, including phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, and phylogenetic analyses, showed that strain YIM132180^T represents a novel species of the genus Aureimonas, for which the name Aureimonas leprariae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM 132180^T (=KCTC 72462^T = CGMCC 1.17389^T).