A Gram-stain-positive, catalase-positive, non-motile bacteria, with a rod-coccus cycle (designated as EH-1B-1T) was isolated from a soil sample from Union Glacier in Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica. Strain EH-1B-1T had an optimal growth temperature of 28 °C and grew at pH 7-10. The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C15 : 0, iso-C15 : 0, C16 : 0 and anteiso-C17 : 0. The G+C content based on the whole genome sequence was 63.1 mol%. Strain EH-1B-1T was most closely related to members of the genus Arthrobacter, namely Arthrobacter subterraneus and Arthrobacter tumbae. The strain grew on tryptic soy agar, Reasoner's 2A agar, lysogeny broth agar and nutrient agar. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain EH-1B-1T and its closest reference type strains ranged from 78 to 88 % and from 20.9 to 36.3 %, respectively. Based on phenotypic, chemotypic and genotypic evidence, it is proposed that strain EH-1B-1T represents a novel species of Arthrobacter, for which the name Arthrobacter vasquezii sp. nov. is proposed, with strain EH-1B-1T (RGM 3386T=LMG 32961T) as the type strain.
Keywords: Actinobacteria; Arthrobacter vasquezii; Union Glacier; novel species; phylogenetic analysis; soil.