Mixta tenebrionis sp. Nov., isolated from the gut of the plastic-eating mealworm Tenebrio molitor L.

Mengli Xia, Jialei Wang, Yi Xin Huo, Yu Yang*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A bacterial strain, BIT-26T, was isolated from the gut of plastic-eating mealworm Tenebrio molitor L. The taxonomic position of this new isolate was investigated by using a polyphasic approach. Cells of the strain were Gram-stain-negative, facultatively anaerobic, motile rods with peritrichous flagella. The 16S rRNA gene sequence (1412 bp) of strain BIT-26T showed the highest similarity (97.4%) to Erwinia piriflorinigrans CFBP 5888T, followed by Citrobacter sedlakii NBRC 105722T (97.3%), Mixta calida LMG 25383T (97.3%), Cronobacter muytjensii ATCC 51329T (97.2%) and Mixta theicola QC88-366T (97.2%). The results of phylogenetic analyses, based on the 16S rRNA gene and concatenated sequences of four housekeeping genes (atpD, gyrB, infB and rpoB), placed strain BIT-26T within the genus Mixta of the family Erwiniaceae. This affiliation was also supported by the chemotaxonomic data. Strain BIT-26T had similar predominant fatty acids, including C12: 0, C14: 0, C16: 0, C17: 0 cyclo and C19: 0 cyclo ω8c, to species of the genus Mixta. In silico DNA–DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity calculations plus physiological and biochemical tests allowed the genotypic and phenotypic differentiation of strain BIT-26T from other species of the genus Mixta with validly published names. Therefore, strain BIT-26T is considered to represent a novel species, for which the name Mixta tenebrionis sp. nov is proposed. The type strain is BIT-26T (=CGMCC 1.17041T=KCTC 72449T).

Original languageEnglish
Article number003826
Pages (from-to)790-796
Number of pages7
JournalInternational Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology
Volume70
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

Keywords

  • Gut bacteria
  • Mealworm
  • Mixta
  • Plastic biodegradation
  • Polystyrene

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