Luteimonas deserti sp. nov., a novel strain isolated from desert soil

A Gram-stain-negative, non-motile, rod-shaped bacterial strain, named SJ-16^T, was isolated from desert soil collected in Inner Mongolia, northern PR China. Strain SJ-16^T grew at pH 6.0-11.0 (optimum, pH 8.0-9.0), 4-40 °C (optimum, 30-35 °C) and in the presence of 0-8 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0-2 %). The strain was negative for catalase and positive for oxidase. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain SJ-16^T clustered with Luteimonas chenhongjianii 100111^T and Luteimonas terrae THG-MD21^T, and had 98.8, 98.6, 98.3 and <97.9 % of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to strains L. chenhongjianii 100111^T, L. terrae THG-MD21^T, L. aestuarii B9^T and all other type strains of the genus Luteimonas, respectively. The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C_15 : 0, iso-C_16 : 0, summed feature 3 (C_16 : 1  ω7c and/or C_16 : 1  ω6c) and summed feature 9 (C_16 : 0 10-methyl and/or iso-C_17 : 1  ω9c). Diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine were the major polar lipids, and ubiquinone-8 was the only respiratory quinone. The genomic DNA G+C content was 69.3 mol%. The digital DNA-DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity values of strain SJ-16^T to L. chenhongjianii 100111^T, L. terrae THG-MD21^T, L. rhizosphaerae 4-12^T and L. aestuarii B9^T were 36.9, 37.5, 24.0 and 21.1 %, and 80.9, 80.6, 80.7 and 76.3 %, respectively. Based on phenotypic, physiological and phylogenetic results, strain SJ-16^T represents a novel species of the genus Luteimonas, for which the name Luteimonas deserti is proposed. The type strain is SJ-16^T (=CGMCC 1.17694^T=KCTC 82207^T).