Aquimonas voraii gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel gammaproteobacterium isolated from a warm spring of Assam, India

1 Microbial Type Culture Collection & Gene Bank (MTCC), Institute of Microbial Technology, Sector 39A, Chandigarh – 160 036, India 2 Biotechnology Division, Regional Research Laboratory, Jorhat – 785 006, Assam, India Correspondence T. Chakrabarti tapan{at}imtech.res.in A bacterial strain designated GPTSA 20 T , which was isolated from a warm spring in Assam, India, was characterized by using a polyphasic approach. The cells were Gram-negative, aerobic rods, which could not utilize or produce acid from most of the carbohydrates tested. The predominant fatty acids were C 15 : 0 iso (25·04 %), C 17 : 1 iso 9 c (19·28 %), C 16 : 0 iso (17·73 %) and C 11 : 0 iso 3-OH (9·34 %). The G+C content was 75 mol%. From 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis (1433 nucleotides, continuous stretch), it was confirmed that strain GPTSA 20 T belonged to the class ‘ Gammaproteobacteria ’. The closest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity found (98·2 %) was with an uncultured bacterium clone, NB-03 (accession no. AB117707 ), from an autotrophic nitrifying biofilm. Among culturable bacteria, the closest sequence similarities were with Fulvimonas soli (93·0 %), Silanimonas lenta (92·8 %), Thermomonas hydrothermalis (92·4 %), Frateuria aurantia (91·9 %), Rhodanobacter lindaniclasticus (91·9 %), Thermomonas haemolytica (91·9 %) and Pseudoxanthomonas taiwanensis (91·8 %); similarities of less than 91·8 % were obtained with other members of the class ‘ Gammaproteobacteria ’. From the biochemical, physiological, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analysis, it was clear that strain GPTSA 20 T was quite different from members of known genera of the class ‘ Gammaproteobacteria ’. Therefore, it is proposed that strain GPTSA 20 T represents a novel species within a new genus, with the name Aquimonas voraii gen. nov., sp. nov. The type strain is GPTSA 20 T (=MTCC 6713 T =JCM 12896 T ). Published online ahead of print on 1 March 2005 as DOI 10.1099/ijs.0.63552-0. The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of Aquimonas voraii GPTSA 20 T is AY544768 .