Devosia epidermidihirudinis sp. nov. isolated from the surface of a medical leech.

A Gram-negative, rod-shaped organism, isolated from the surface of the medical leech Hirudo verbana was characterized phenotypically and genotypically. The calculated 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities to those of the most closely related species grouped strain E84(T) into the genus Devosia showing the highest similarities to Devosia limi (98.1 %), followed by Devosia psychrophila (97.9 %), Devosia neptuniae (97.3 %), and Devosia glacialis (97.5 %). Chemotaxonomic analyses showed that the major quinone was ubiquinone Q-10. The polar lipid profile consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and three glycolipids. The major fatty acid profile consisted of C18:1 ω7c 11-methyl, C19:0 cyclo ω8c, and C16:0, C18:0 and C18:1 ω7c with C18:0 3OH as hydroxylated fatty acid. This profile is very similar to those of the patterns reported for the already described Devosia species. The results of DNA-DNA hybridization, physiological and biochemical tests allowed both genotypic and phenotypic differentiation of strain E84(T) from all other Devosia species suggesting a novel species for which the name Devosia epidermidihirudinis sp. nov. is proposed, with the type strain E84(T) (=CIP 110375(T) = LMG 26909(T) = CCM 8398(T)).