Rufibacter tibetensis gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel member of the family Cytophagaceae isolated from soil.

A red-pigmented, Gram-negative, strictly aerobic, rod-shaped bacterium which was motile by gliding, designated strain 1351(T), was isolated from the soil of Lengduo, Tibet in China and subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic analysis. The isolate grows optimally at 30°C and pH 7. It grows with NaCl tolerated up to 1.5% (optimum, 0.5%). Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence shows that strain 1351(T) is closely related to members of the family 'Cytophagaceae' closest sequence similarity was observed with similarity with Adhaeribacter terreus (91.8%). The major whole-cell fatty acids are summed feature 4 (containing anteiso-C(17:1) B and/or iso-C(17:1) I, 29.2%), summed feature 3 (containing C(16:1)ω6c and/or C(16:1)ω7c, 13.0%) and iso-C(15:0) (12.0%). The predominant menaquinone of strain 1351(T) is menaquinone-7 (MK-7) and the G+C content of the DNA is 46.8 mol%. According to the phylogenetic evidence and phenotypic data, strain 1351(T) is considered to represent a new genus and species of the family 'Cytophagaceae' for which the name Rufibacter tibetensis gen nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type species is R. tibetensis and the type strain is 1351(T) (=CCTCC AB 208084(T) = NRRL B-51285(T)).