The genus Flavobacterium (family Flavobacteriaceae) can be found in diverse environments. In this study, seven novel strains were isolated from glaciers in PR China and subjected to taxonomic research. Phylogenetic analyses based on the 16S rRNA gene revealed that the strains belonged to the genus Flavobacterium. None of the seven strains grew at temperatures above 22 °C, indicating that they are psychrophilic. Furthermore, the average nucleotide identity (ANI) values of the seven strains were calculated and indicated that they represented two novel species in Flavobacterium. Strain LB3P56T was most closely related to Flavobacterium soyangense IMCC26223T (97.70 %) and strain GSP16T was most closely related to Flavobacterium sinopsychrotolerans 0533T (98.03 %). The ANI values between the two Flavobacterium strains and their closest relatives were less than 83.47 %, which was much lower than the threshold for species delineation of 95-96 %. Therefore, we propose two novel species, Flavobacterium franklandianum sp. nov. (LB3P56T=CGMCC 1.11934T=NBRC 113651T) and Flavobacterium gawalongense sp. nov. (GSP16T=CGMCC 1.24642T=NBRC 113664T).
Keywords: Flavobacterium; glacier; psychrophilic.