Edaphobacter dinghuensis sp. nov., an acidobacterium isolated from lower subtropical forest soil.

An aerobic bacterium, designated DHF9T, was isolated from a soil sample collected from the lower subtropical forest of Dinghushan Biosphere Reserve, Guangdong Province, PR China. Cells were Gram-stain-negative, non-motile, short rods that multiplied by binary division. Strain DHF9T was an obligately acidophilic, mesophilic bacterium capable of growth at pH 3.5-5.5 (optimum pH 4.0) and at 10-33 °C (optimum 28-33 °C). Growth was inhibited at NaCl concentrations above 2.0 % (w/v). The major fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0, C16 : 0 and C16 : 1ω7c. The polar lipids consist of phosphatidylethanolamine, two unidentified aminolipids, two unidentified phospholipids, two unidentified polar lipids and an unidentified glycolipid. The DNA G+C content was 57.7 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that the strain belongs to the genus Edaphobacter in subdivision 1 of the phylum Acidobacteria, with the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 97.0 % to Edaphobacter modestus Jbg-1T. Based on phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic and physiological analyses, it is proposed that strain DHF9T represents a novel species of the genus Edaphobacter, named Edaphobacter dinghuensis sp. nov. The type strain is DHF9T ( = DSM 29920T = CGMCC 1.12997T).