Saccharibacter floricola gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel osmophilic acetic acid bacterium isolated from pollen

1 Institute of Life Science, Ajinomoto Co. Inc., 1-1 Suzuki-cho, Kawasaki 210-8681, Japan 2 AminoScience Laboratories, Ajinomoto, 1-1 Suzuki-cho, Kawasaki 210-8681, Japan 3 Faculty of Textile Science and Technology, Shinshu University, Ueda 386-8567, Japan Correspondence Ryosuke Fudou ryosuke_fudou{at}ajinomoto.com Three Gram-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped bacterial strains were isolated, from the pollen of Japanese flowers, as producers of xylitol; these strains were subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. Phylogenetic analyses of the 16S rRNA gene sequences demonstrated that these three isolates formed a new cluster within a group of acetic acid bacteria in the - Proteobacteria . The characteristics of the three isolates were as follows: (i) their predominant quinone was Q-10; (ii) their cellular fatty acid profile contained major amounts of 2-hydroxy acids and an unsaturated straight-chain acid (C 18 : 1 7 c ); and (iii) their DNA G+C contents were in the range 51·9–52·3 mol%, which is around the lower limit of the reported range for the genera of acetic acid bacteria. The negligible or very weak productivity of acetic acid from ethanol and the osmophilic growth properties distinguished these strains from other acetic acid bacteria. The unique phylogenetic and phenotypic characteristics suggest that the three isolates should be classified within a novel genus and species with the proposed name Saccharibacter floricola gen. nov., sp. nov. The type strain is strain S-877 T (=AJ 13480 T =JCM 12116 T =DSM 15669 T ). Published online ahead of print on 9 July 2004 as DOI 10.1099/ijs.0.02911-0. The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain S-877 T is AB110421 .