Exiguobacterium indicum sp. nov., a psychrophilic bacterium from the Hamta glacier of the Himalayan mountain ranges of India.

Strain HHS 31(T), a Gram-positive, motile, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming, alkaliphilic bacterium, was isolated from the melt water of a glacier. Phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics indicate that strain HHS 31(T) is related to species of the genus Exiguobacterium. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities between HHS 31(T) and strains of known species confirm that it is closely related to members of the genus Exiguobacterium (93-99 %) and that it exhibits >97 % similarity with Exiguobacterium acetylicum DSM 20416(T) (98.9 %), Exiguobacterium antarcticum DSM 14480(T) (98.0 %), Exiguobacterium oxidotolerans JCM 12280(T) (97.9 %) and Exiguobacterium undae DSM 14481(T) (97.4 %). Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence further confirms the affiliation of HHS 31(T) with the genus Exiguobacterium. However, the levels of DNA-DNA relatedness between HHS 31(T) and E. oxidotolerans JCM 12280(T), E. acetylicum DSM 20416(T), E. undae DSM 14481(T) and E. antarcticum DSM 14480(T) are 50, 63, 67 and 28 %, respectively. Strain HHS 31(T) also differs from these four closely related species in terms of a number of phenotypic traits. The phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data suggest that HHS 31(T) merits the status of a novel species, for which the name Exiguobacterium indicum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is HHS 31(T) (=LMG 23471(T)=IAM 15368(T)).