Paenibacillus hodogayensis sp. nov., capable of degrading the polysaccharide produced by Sphaerotilus natans.

Sphaerotilus natans is a sheathed bacterium often found in activated sludge that has a bulking problem. A bacterial strain that is able to degrade the extracellular polysaccharide produced by S. natans was isolated. The isolate was a spore-forming, aerobic, rod-shaped bacterium. The Gram reaction was variable or negative. The optimum growth temperature was 30 degrees C and the optimum pH was 8. The G+C content of the DNA was 55 mol%. The major cellular fatty acid and respiratory quinone were anteiso-C(15 : 0) and MK-7, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene indicated that the isolate was a member of the genus Paenibacillus. The nearest relative, with a similarity of 94.2 %, was Paenibacillus koleovorans, a bacterium capable of degrading the sheath of S. natans. The phenotypic characteristics of the isolate were apparently different from those of related species in the genus Paenibacillus. It is proposed that the isolate be designated Paenibacillus hodogayensis sp. nov. The type strain is SG(T) (=JCM 12520(T)=KCTC 3919(T)).