Paenibacillus lutimineralis sp. nov., Isolated From Bentonite

Strain MBLB1234ᵀ was isolated from bentonite samples collected at Guryong mining area located in Pohang, Republic of Korea and was taxonomically characterized by a polyphasic approach. This strain was a Gram-stain-negative, motile, endospore-forming, facultative anaerobic, catalase-positive, oxidase-negative, and rod-shaped bacterium. Strain MBLB1234ᵀ was able to grow at 20‒45 °C (optimum, 37 °C), pH 6.0‒10.0 (optimum, 7.0–8.0), and 0‒5.0% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0.5%). Genome size was 6,497,679 bp with a G + C content of 46.4 mol %. The genome was predicted to contain 5233 protein-coding genes, and 135 rRNA genes consisted of 10 5S rRNAs, 10 16S rRNAs, 10 23S rRNAs, and 105 tRNAs. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain MBLB1234ᵀ clustered with Paenibacillus motobuensis JCM 12774ᵀ and P. aceti JCM 31170ᵀ with 98.3–98.5% and 97.2–97.4% sequencing similarity, respectively. The major fatty acids of strain MBLB1234ᵀ were anteiso-C₁₅:₀ (35.7%), anteiso-C₁₇:₀ (17.8%), iso-C₁₇:₀ (14.5%), and C₁₆:₀ (11.0%). The polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylmethylethanolamine, and one unidentified phospholipid, six unidentified aminophospholipids, and one unidentified lipid. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was menaquinone-7. DNA–DNA hybridization values between strain MBLB1234ᵀ and P. motobuensis JCM 12774ᵀ and P. aceti JCM 31170ᵀ were 34 and 38%, respectively. Average nucleotide identity value between strains MBLB1234ᵀ and P. aceti L14ᵀ was 82.3%. Based on characteristics of genomic, phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, and phylogenetic analyses, strain MBLB1234ᵀ represents a novel species of the genus P. , for which the name P. lutimineralis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is MBLB1234ᵀ (= JCM 32684ᵀ = KCTC 33978ᵀ).