Paenibacillus albidus sp. nov., isolated from grassland soil

A novel bacterial strain, designed Q4-3^T, was isolated from a soil sample obtained from Qilian grassland, Qinghai, China. Phylogenetic, phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and molecular analyses were performed on the new isolate. Cells were Gramstain- positive, facultatively anaerobic, spore-forming, motile rods with peritrichous flagella. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences placed strain Q4-3^T in the genus Paenibacillus, and its closest relatives were Paenibacillus odorifer JCM 21743^T, Paenibacillus typhae DSM 25190^T, Paenibacillus borealis DSM 13188^T and Paenibacillus etheri DSM 29760^T with 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of 98.12, 97.89, 97.63 and 97.6%, respectively. The isolate grew at 4-37 °C (optimum 28-30 °C), at pH 6.0-10.0 (optimum pH 7.5) and with 0-3%(w/v) NaCl (optimum 1%). The DNA of strain Q4-3^T was determined to be 48.6 mol%. The predominant menaquinone was MK-7 and the diamino acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan was found to be meso-diaminopimelic acid. Anteiso-C_{15: 0} (55.5%), iso-C_{16: 0} (14.5%) and C_{16: 0} (13.3%) were the major fatty acids. The polar lipids contained diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, three unidentified aminophospholipids and one unidentified lipid. Based on these results, strain Q4-3^T is considered to represent a novel of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillusalbidus nov. is proposed. The type strain is Q4-3^T (=CGMCC 1.16134^T =KCTC 33911^T).