Hymenobacter terricola sp. nov., isolated from Antarctic soil

Strain 3F2^T was isolated from a soil sample obtained from the surface of Deception Island, Antarctica. The isolate was a Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile, rod-shaped bacterium, and its colonies were red to pink in colour. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain 3F2^T belonged to the genus Hymenobacter, family Hymenobacteraceae and was most closely related to Hymenobacter sedentarius DG5B^T (97.0% sequence similarity), Hymenobacter soli PB17^T (96.9%), Hymenobacter terrae DG7A^T (96.8%) and Hymenobacter rufus S1-2-2-6^T (96.5%). Growth occurred at 4-20 °C (optimum, 10 °C), up to 1.0 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0%) and pH 6.0-8.0 (optimum, pH 7.0). The chemotaxonomic characteristics of strain 3F2^T, which had MK-7 as its predominant menaquinone and summed feature 3 (C_16:1 ω7c and/or C_16:1 ω6c), iso-C_15:0, anteiso-C_15:0 and C_16:1 ω5c as its major fatty acids, were consistent with classification in the genus Hymenobacter. The polar lipid profile of strain 3F2^T comprised phosphatidylethanolamine, two unidentified aminolipids, two unidentified aminophospholipids and three unidentified polar lipids. The genome of strain 3F2^T was 6.56 Mbp with a G+C content of 61.5 mol%. Average nucleotide identity (ANI) values between 3F2^T and the other species of the genus Hymenobacter were found to be low (ANIm <87.0%, ANIb <82.0% and OrthoANIu <83.0%). Furthermore, digital DNA-DNA hybridization and average amino acid identity values between strain 3F2^T and the closely related species ranged from 20.0 to 26.3% and from 64.0 to 81.1 %, respectively. Based on the results of our phylogenetic, phenotypic, genotypic and chemotaxonomic analyses, it is concluded that strain 3F2^T represents a novel species within the genus Hymenobacter, for which the name Hymenobacter terricola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 3F2^T (=KCTC 72468^T=CGMCC 1.13716^T).