Aquimonas voraii gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel gammaproteobacterium isolated from a warm spring of Assam, India.

A bacterial strain designated GPTSA 20(T), which was isolated from a warm spring in Assam, India, was characterized by using a polyphasic approach. The cells were Gram-negative, aerobic rods, which could not utilize or produce acid from most of the carbohydrates tested. The predominant fatty acids were C(15:0) iso (25.04%), C(17:1) iso omega9c (19.28%), C(16:0) iso (17.73%) and C(11:0) iso 3-OH (9.34%). The G+C content was 75 mol%. From 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis (1433 nucleotides, continuous stretch), it was confirmed that strain GPTSA 20(T) belonged to the class 'Gammaproteobacteria'. The closest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity found (98.2%) was with an uncultured bacterium clone, NB-03 (accession no. AB117707), from an autotrophic nitrifying biofilm. Among culturable bacteria, the closest sequence similarities were with Fulvimonas soli (93.0%), Silanimonas lenta (92.8%), Thermomonas hydrothermalis (92.4%), Frateuria aurantia (91.9%), Rhodanobacter lindaniclasticus (91.9%), Thermomonas haemolytica (91.9%) and Pseudoxanthomonas taiwanensis (91.8%); similarities of less than 91.8% were obtained with other members of the class 'Gammaproteobacteria'. From the biochemical, physiological, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analysis, it was clear that strain GPTSA 20(T) was quite different from members of known genera of the class 'Gammaproteobacteria'. Therefore, it is proposed that strain GPTSA 20(T) represents a novel species within a new genus, with the name Aquimonas voraii gen. nov., sp. nov. The type strain is GPTSA 20(T) (=MTCC 6713(T)=JCM 12896(T)).