Paenibacillus thermophilus sp. nov., a novel bacterium isolated from a sediment of hot spring in Fujian province, China.

A Gram-positive, thermophilic, strictly aerobic bacterium, designated WP-1(T), was isolated from a sediment sample from a hot spring in Fujian province of China and subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. Cells of strain WP-1(T) were rods (~0.6-0.8 × 2.5-3.5 μm) and motile by means of peritrichous flagella. Endospores were ellipsoidal in terminal or subterminal positions. Strain WP-1(T) grew at 37-60 °C (optimum 42-45 °C), 0-3 % NaCl (optimum 1 %, w/v) and pH 3.0-9.0 (optimum pH 6.5-7.0). The predominant menaquinone was MK-7. The major fatty acids were anteiso-C(15:0), iso-C(16:0), C(16:0) and anteiso-C(17:0). The polar lipids consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, two glycolipids, two unidentified phospholipids and two unknown polar lipids. The cell-wall peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid (meso-DAP). The G + C content of the genomic DNA was 52.5 %. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that strain WP-1(T) is a member of the genus Paenibacillus and exhibited sequence similarity of 99.3 % to Paenibacillus macerans DSM 24(T) and both strains represented a separate lineage from all other Paenibacillus species. However, the level of DNA-DNA relatedness between strain WP-1(T) and P. macerans DSM 24(T) was 34.0 ± 4.7 %. On the basis of phylogenetic, physiological and chemotaxonomic analysis data, strain WP-1(T) is considered to represent as a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus thermophilus sp. nov., is proposed, with the type strain WP-1(T) (=DSM 24746(T) = JCM 17693(T) = CCTCC AB 2011115(T)).