A non-motile, pink-coloured and rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain POA9T, was isolated from a wastewater treatment facility, Republic of Korea. Cells were Gram-reaction-negative, aerobic, catalase-positive and oxidase-negative. The major fatty acids were C16 : 1ω5c, iso-C15 : 0, summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω6c and/or C16 : 1ω7c) and anteiso-C15 : 0. The strain contained MK-7 as the only isoprenoid quinone, phosphatidylethanolamine as the major polar lipid and sym-homospermidine as the major polyamine. The DNA G+C content was 57 mol%. A phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain POA9T forms a distinct evolutionary lineage within the radiation enclosing the members of the genus Hymenobacter, sharing the highest similarity with Hymenobacter actinosclerus CCUG 39621T (95.5 % sequence similarity) followed by Hymenobacterseoulensis 16F7GT (95.5 %), Hymenobactertibetensis XTM003T (95.4 %), Hymenobacterrutilus K2-33028T (95.4 %) and Hymenobacter psychrotolerans Tibet-IIU11T (94.9 %). A number of phenotypic characteristics distinguished strain POA9T from the related members of the genus Hymenobacter. On the basis of the evidence presented in this study, a novel species, Hymenobacter defluvii sp. nov., is proposed for strain POA9T (=KCTC 52270T=JCM 31658T).
Keywords: Hymenobacter defluvii; sym-homospermidine; wastewater.