Lysinibacillus pinottii sp. nov., a novel species with anti-mosquito and anti-mollusk activity

Abstract

An isolate of a Gram-positive, strictly aerobic, motile, rod-shaped, endospore forming bacterium was originally isolated from soil when screening and bioprospecting for plant beneficial microorganisms. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that this strain was closely related to Lysinibacillus fusiformis NRRL NRS-350^T (99.7%) and Lysinibacillus sphaericus NRRL B-23268^T (99.2%). In phenotypic characterization, the novel strain was found to grow between 10 and 45 °C and tolerate up to 8% (w/v) NaCl. Furthermore, the strain grew in media with pH 5 to 10 (optimal growth at pH 7.0). The predominant cellular fatty acids were observed to be iso-C_15: 0 (52.3%), anteiso-C_15: 0 (14.8%), C_16:1ω7C alcohol (11.2%), and C_16: 0 (9.5%). The cell-wall peptidoglycan contained lysine-aspartic acid, the same as congeners. A draft genome was assembled and the DNA G+C content was determined to be 37.1% (mol content). A phylogenomic analysis on the core genome of the new strain and 5 closest type strains of Lysinibacillus revealed this strain formed a distinct monophyletic clade with the nearest neighbor being Lysinibacillus fusiformis. DNA–DNA relatedness studies using in silico DNA–DNA hybridizations (DDH) showed this species was below the species threshold of 70%. Based upon the consensus of phylogenetic and phenotypic analyses, we conclude that this strain represents a novel species within the genus Lysinibacillus, for which the name Lysinibacillus pinottii sp. nov. is proposed, with type strain PB211^T (= NRRL B-65672^T, = CCUG 77181^T).