Methylotenera oryzisoli sp. nov., a lanthanide-dependent methylotrophic bacteria isolated from rice field soil

A new lanthanide (Ln³⁺)-dependent methanol-utilizing bacterial strain, La3113^T, was isolated from rice field soil and its taxonomic position was investigated using polyphasic approaches. The strain was aerobic, Gram-stain-negative, strongly motile, catalase-positive and cytochrome oxidase-positive. It could neither catalyse the hydrolysis of urea nor reduce nitrate to nitrite. Growth was observed within a temperature range of 10-40 °C and a pH range of 6-8, with optimum growth at 28 °C and pH 7. Methylamine was utilized as the single source of energy, carbon and nitrogen, and it was oxidized by methylamine dehydrogenase. C_16 : 1  ω7c, C_16 : 1  ω6c and C_16 : 0 were the dominant cellular fatty acids. Its draft genome (2.67 Mbp and 44.9 mol% G+C content) encodes genes including three Ln³⁺-dependent methanol dehydrogenase (XoxF-type MDH) genes, those for formaldehyde assimilation (ribulose monophosphate pathway), formate dehydrogenases and methylamine dehydrogenases, but not Ca²⁺-dependent MDH (MxaFI-MDH), which characterizes the species as a Ln³⁺-dependent methylotroph. The 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that strain La3113^T belongs to the genus Methylotenera and is closely related to Methylotenera mobilis JLW8^T (98.29 % identity). The digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) values (less than 30 %) and average nucleotide identity (ANI) values (less than 85 %) between genomes of strain La3113^T and related type strains were lower than the thresholds for species delineation (70 % for dDDH and 95-96 % for ANI). On the basis of these polyphasic approaches, we propose a novel Methylotenera species, Methylotenera oryzisoli sp. nov. (type strain La3113^T=NBRC 111954^T=DSM 103219^T).