Paraflavitalea pollutisoli sp. nov., Pollutibacter soli gen. nov. sp. nov., Polluticoccus soli gen. nov. sp. nov., and Terrimonas pollutisoli sp. nov., four new members of the family Chitinophagaceae from polluted soil

Abstract

A taxonomic investigation was conducted on four bacterial strains isolated from soil contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that these strains belonged to the family Chitinophagaceae. Examination of the 16S rRNA genes indicated that their sequence identities were below 97.6 % compared to any known and validly nominated bacterial species. The genomes of the four strains ranged from 4.12 to 8.76 Mb, with overall G + C molar contents varying from 41.28 % to 50.39 %. Predominant cellular fatty acids included iso-C_15:0, iso-C_15:1 G, and iso-C_17:0 3-OH. The average nucleotide identity ranged from 66.90 % to 74.63 %, and digital DNA-DNA hybridization was 12.5–12.8 %. Based on the genomic and phenotypic features of the new strains, four novel species and two new genera were proposed within the family Chitinophagaceae. The ecological distributions were investigated by data-mining of NCBI databases, and results showed that additional strains or species of the newly proposed taxa were widely distributed in various environments, including polluted soil and waters. Functional analysis demonstrated that strains H1-2-19X^T, JS81^T, and JY13-12^T exhibited resistance to arsenite (III) and chromate (VI). The proposed names for the four novel species are Paraflavitalea pollutisoli (type strain H1-2-19X^T = JCM 36460^T = CGMCC 1.61321^T), Terrimonas pollutisoli (type strain H1YJ31^T = JCM 36215^T = CGMCC 1.61343^T), Pollutibacter soli (type strain JS81^T = JCM 36462^T = CGMCC 1.61338^T), and Polluticoccus soli (type strain JY13-12^T = JCM 36463^T = CGMCC 1.61341^T).