A Gram-positive, endospore-forming, strictly aerobic and rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain MME2_R6T, was isolated from Arctic soil, and it was identified by using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. This strain was psychrotolerant, growing at 4‒24 °C. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain MME2_R6T was closest to Paenibacillus swuensis DY6T, with 93.9 % similarity. However, in phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence, strain MME2_R6T showed that it clustered with Paenibacillus contaminans CKOBP-6T and the sequencing similarity between the two species was 93.7 %. Its major cellular fatty acid was anteiso-C15 : 0, like other Paenibacillus species. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglycerol. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was menaquinone-7. The diagnostic diamino acid in the cell wall was meso-diaminopimelic acid. The genomic DNA G+C content was 44.2 mol%. Based on the results of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analyses, a novel species, Paenibacillus arcticus sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is MME2_R6T (=JCM 30981T=PAMC 28731T).
Keywords: Arctic; Paenibacillus arcticus; polyphasic taxonomy.