Abstract
A phototrophic gammaproteobacterium designated strain JA395T was isolated from a sediment sample collected from the coast of Birds' Island in the southern sector of Chilika Lagoon, India. The bacterium is a Gram-negative, motile coccus with a single polar flagellum. Bacteriochlorophyll a, and lycopene as major carotenoid. C16:0, C16:1ω7c/C16:1ω6c and C18:1ω7c are the major cellular fatty acids of strain JA395T. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain JA395T clusters with those of species of the genus Thiorhodococcus belonging to the class Gammaproteobacteria. The highest sequence similarities of strain JA395T were found with the type strains of Thiorhodococcus minor (96.8%), Thiorhodococcus mannitoliphagus (96.3%), Thiorhodococcus bheemlicus (95.8%), “Thiorhodococcus drewsii” (95.4%), and Thiorhodococcus kakinadensis (95.0%). The genomic DNA base composition of strain JA395T (=KCTC 5710T=NBRC 104958T) was 57.8 mol% G + C (by HPLC). Based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, morphological and physiological characteristics, strain JA395T is sufficiently different from other Thiorhodococcus species and we describe this as a new species, Thiorhodococcus modestalkaliphilus sp. nov.
