Paenibacillus thermoaerophilus sp. nov., a moderately thermophilic bacterium isolated from compost.

A rod-shaped, endospore-forming, Gram-reaction-positive bacterium, designated strain TC22-2b(T), was isolated from compost in Tochigi, Japan. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the strain belonged to a cluster comprising species of the genus Paenibacillus and was most closely related to the type strain of Paenibacillus elgii (93.4% similarity). The major cellular fatty acids were C(16:0) (25.5%), iso-C(16:0) (23.6%) and anteiso-C(15:0) (21.5%). The predominant menaquinone was MK-7. The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine. The diamino acid found in the cell wall peptidoglycan was meso-diaminopimelic acid, and the DNA G+C content was 59.1 mol%. The results of physiological and biochemical tests enabled the phenotypic differentiation of strain TC22-2b(T) from the most closely related species with validly published names. Phylogenetic and phenotypic evidence reveals that strain TC22-2b(T) represents a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus thermoaerophilus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of the novel species is TC22-2b(T) ( =DSM 26310(T)  =JCM 18657(T)).