Planococcus soli sp. nov., isolated from antarctic soil

A novel bacterial strain, designated C23^T, was isolated from a soil sample obtained from King George Island, Antarctica. Phenotypic, phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic and molecular analyses were performed on the new isolate. Strain C23^T formed orange colonies on agar plates and was Gram-stain-positive. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain C23^T was a member of the genus Planococcus and was closely related to Planococcus salinarum DSM 23802^T (98.5% sequence similarity), Planococcus halotolerans SCU63^T (98.3%), Planomicrobium okeanokoites IFO 12526^T (98.3%), Planococcus donghaensis DSM 22276^T (98.3%) and Planococcus maitriensisi S1^T (98.2%). This organism grew at 2–38 °C (optimum, 25–30 °C), pH 6.0–12.0 (optimum, pH 7.5) and 0–14% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 2%). The predominant menaquinone was MK-8. The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C_15:0, iso-C_14:0 and C_16:1 ω7c alcohol. The whole genome DNA of C23^T was deposited in the GenBank database under accession number WXYN00000000. According to the whole genome, the DNA G + C content of strain C23^T was determined to be 46.8 mol%; the average nucleotide identity (ANI) of strain C23^T and P. salinarum DSM 23802^T, P. halotolerans SCU63^T, P. okeanokoites IFO 12526^T, P. donghaensis DSM 22276^T and P. maitriensis S1^T were 74.1%, 74.3%, 74.1%, 78.8 and 73.6%; the digital DNA–DNA hybridization (dDDH) values between strain C23^T and the five closely related species were 19.7%, 19.6%, 19.5%, 22.4 and 18.6%; the average amino acid identity (AAI) values between strain C23^T and the five closely related species were 73.9%, 74.5%, 74.4%, 84.6 and 74.5%. All data were below the threshold range for species determination. Based on the polyphasic taxonomic study, we considered that strain C23^T represented a novel species of the genus Planococcus for which the name Planococcus soli sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is C23^T (= KCTC 33644^T = CGMCC 1.15115^T).