Microbacterium indicum sp. nov., isolated from a deep-sea sediment sample from the Chagos Trench, Indian Ocean.

Two bacterial strains, BBH6(T) and BBH9, were isolated from a deep-sea sediment sample collected from the Chagos Trench, Indian Ocean, at a depth of 5904 m. The two strains were closely related in their 16S rRNA gene sequences (99.7 %), belonged to one genomic species and were virtually identical at the phenotypic level. Microbacterium barkeri DSM 20145(T) was the nearest phylogenetic neighbour to the new isolates, with 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity levels of 97.2-97.4 %. The new isolates exhibited levels of DNA-DNA relatedness of 32-34 % to M. barkeri and differed from it in a number of phenotypic characteristics. Therefore, it is suggested that strains BBH6(T) and BBH9 represent a novel species of the genus Microbacterium, for which the name Microbacterium indicum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is BBH6(T) (=LMG 23459(T)=IAM 15355(T)).