Pontibacter chitinilyticus sp. nov., a novel chitin-hydrolysing bacterium isolated from soil.

A Gram-stain negative, non-motile, orange-red-pigmented, asporogenous, rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated 17gy-14T, was isolated from a soil sample collected from a Seoul Women's University field. The strain can grow at 7-37 °C, pH 6.0-8.0, and can tolerate up to 5.5% (w/v) NaCl concentration. Flexirubin-type pigments were absent. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that the strain 17gy-14T strain belongs to the genus Pontibacter in the family Cytophagaceae with sequence similarities ranging from 95.4 to 92.9% with other type strains of the genus Pontibacter. The predominant cellular fatty acids were identified as iso-C15:0, anteiso-C15:0, iso-C17:0 3-OH and summed feature 4 (comprising iso-C17:1 I/anteiso-C17:1 B). The predominant menaquinone was identified as MK-7. The DNA G+C content was determined to be 48.7 mol%. The major polar lipid was found to be phosphatidylethanolamine. Based on phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analyses, strain 17gy-14T is concluded to represent a novel species of the genus Pontibacter in the phylum Bacteroidetes, for which the name Pontibacter chitinilyticus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 17gy-14T (=KCTC 52914T=NRBC 113056T).