Spirosoma utsteinense sp. nov. isolated from Antarctic ice-free soils from the Utsteinen region, East Antarctica

• Published in: International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology
• Main Authors: Tahon, Guillaume, Lebbe, Liesbeth, Willems, Anne
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Antarctica; Ice-free soil; Spirosoma; Antarctic; East Antarctica; Sør Rondane Mountains; Sør-Rondane; Utsteinen; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/spirosoma-utsteinense-sp-nov-isolated-from-antarctic-ice-free-soi; https://doi.org/10.1099/ijsem.0.004754

Between 2014 and 2016, 16 Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped and yellow-orange pigmented bacteria were isolated from exposed soils from the Utsteinen region, Sør Rondane Mountains, East Antarctica. Analysis of their 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the strains form a separate cluster in the genus Spirosoma , with Spirosoma rigui KCTC 12531T as its closest neighbour (97.8 % sequence similarity). Comparative genome analysis of two representative strains (i.e. R-68523T and R-68079) of the new group with the type strains of Spirosoma rigui (its closest neighbour) and Spirosoma linguale (type species of the genus), yielded average nucleotide identity values of 73.9–78.7 %. Digital DNA–DNA reassociation values of the two strains and these type strains ranged from 20.3 to 22.0 %. The predominant cellular fatty acids of the two novel strains were summed feature 3 (i.e. C16 : 1 ω7c and/or iso-C15 2-OH), C16 : 1 ω5c, C16 : 0 and iso-C15 : 0. The new Spirosoma strains grew with 0–0.5 % (w/v) NaCl, at pH 6.5–8.0 and displayed optimum growth between 15 and 25 °C. Based on the results of phenotypic, genomic, phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic analyses, the new strains represent a novel species of the genus Spirosoma for which the name Spirosoma utsteinense sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is R-68523T (=LMG 31447T=CECT 9925T).