Proposal to rename Carnobacterium inhibens as Carnobacterium inhibens subsp. inhibens subsp. nov. and description of Carnobacterium inhibens subsp. gilichinskyi subsp. nov., a psychrotolerant bacterium isolated from Siberian permafrost

A novel, psychrotolerant facultative anaerobe, strain WN1359 ᵀ, was isolated from a permafrost borehole sample collected at the right bank of the Kolyma River in Siberia, Russia. Gram-positive-staining, non-motile, rod-shaped cells were observed with sizes of 1–2 µm long and 0.4–0.5 µm wide. Growth occurred in the range of pH 5.8–9.0 with optimal growth at pH 7.8–8.6 (pH optimum 8.2). The novel isolate grew at temperatures from 0–37 °C and optimal growth occurred at 25 °C. The novel isolate does not require NaCl; growth was observed between 0 and 8.8 % (1.5 M) NaCl with optimal growth at 0.5 % (w/v) NaCl. The isolate was a catalase-negative, facultatively anaerobic chemo-organoheterotroph that used sugars but not several single amino acids or dipeptides as substrates. The major metabolic end-product was lactic acid in the ratio of 86 % l -lactate : 14 % d -lactate. Strain WN1359 ᵀ was sensitive to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, fusidic acid, lincomycin, monocycline, rifampicin, rifamycin SV, spectinomycin, streptomycin, troleandomycin and vancomycin, and resistant to nalidixic acid and aztreonam. The fatty acid content was predominantly unsaturated (70.2 %), branched-chain unsaturated (11.7 %) and saturated (12.5 %). The DNA G+C content was 35.3 mol% by whole genome sequence analysis. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed 98.7 % sequence identity between strain WN1359 ᵀ and Carnobacterium inhibens . Genome relatedness was computed using both Genome-to-Genome Distance Analysis (GGDA) and Average Nucleotide Identity (ANI), which both strongly supported strain WN1359 ᵀ belonging to the species C. inhibens . On the basis of these results, the permafrost isolate WN1359 ᵀ represents a novel subspecies of C. inhibens , for which the name Carnobacterium inhibens subsp. gilichinskyi subsp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is WN1359 ᵀ (= ATCC BAA-2557 ᵀ = DSM 27470 ᵀ). The subspecies Carnobacterium inhibens subsp. inhibens subsp. nov. is created automatically. An emended description of C. inhibens is also provided.