Transfer of [Flexibacter] sancti, [Flexibacter] filiformis, [Flexibacter] japonensis and [Cytophaga] arvensicola to the genus Chitinophaga and description of Chitinophaga skermanii sp. nov

1 Institut für Angewandte Mikrobiologie, Universität Giessen, IFZ – Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26–32, D-35392 Giessen, Germany 2 College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, 402, Taiwan, ROC 3 Department of Biosciences, Mangalore University, Mangalagangotri, India Correspondence Peter Kämpfer peter.kaempfer{at}agrar.uni-giessen.de Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences of species currently assigned to the genus Flexibacter has shown extensive intrageneric phylogenetic heterogeneity. It has been shown in previous studies that the species [ Flexibacter ] sancti , [ Flexibacter ] filiformis and [ Flexibacter ] japonensis were most closely related to Chitinophaga pinensis . In addition, [ Cytophaga ] arvensicola and species of the genus Terrimonas also clustered into this phylogenetic group. Although the similarities of 16S rRNA gene sequences were low (88.5–96.4 %), there is no evidence for clear phenotypic differences between these organisms that justify assignment to different genera. A proposal is made to transfer these species to the genus Chitinophaga as Chitinophaga sancti comb. nov., Chitinophaga filiformis comb. nov., Chitinophaga japonenis comb. nov. and Chitinophaga arvensicola comb. nov. on the basis of phylogenetic and phenotypic data. Furthermore, a novel species is described within this genus, Chitinophaga skermanii sp. nov., with strain CC-SG1B T (=CCUG 52510 T =CIP 109140 T ) as the type strain. The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain CC-SG1B T is AJ971483 .