Lysobacter alkalisoli sp. nov., a chitin-degrading strain isolated from saline-alkaline soil

Strains of Lysobacter , thought to play vital roles in the environment for their high enzyme production capacity, are ubiquitous in various ecosystems. During an analysis of bacterial diversity in saline soil, a Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, chitin-degrading bacterial strain, designated SJ-36 T , was isolated from saline-alkaline soil sampled at Tumd Right Banner, Inner Mongolia, PR China. Strain SJ-36 T grew at 4–40 °C (optimum, 30 °C), pH 5.0–10.0 (optimum, pH 7.0–8.0) and 0–6 % NaCl (optimum, 1.0 %). Oxidase and catalase activities were positive. A phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences and the phylogenomic tree both showed that strain SJ-36 T formed a tight clade with Lysobacter maris KMU-14 T (sharing 97.6 % 16S rRNA gene similarity) and Lysobacter aestuarii S2-C T (97.8 %). The major polar lipids of strain SJ-36 T were phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, two unidentified lipids and one unidentified phospholipid. The major fatty acids were iso-C 15 : 0 (37.5 %), summed feature 9 (14.0 %; iso-C 17 : 1 ω9 c and/or C 16 : 0 10-methyl) and iso-C 11 : 0 (10.6 %). Q-8 was the predominant ubiquinone. Its genomic DNA G + C content was 66.6 mol%. The average nucleotide identity values of strain SJ-36 T to L. maris KMU-14 T , L. aestuarii S2-C T and other type strains were 81.5, 79.1 and <79.0 %, respectively. The results of physiological, phenotypic and phylogenetic characterizations allowed the discrimination of strain SJ-36 T from its phylogenetic relatives. Lysobacter alkalisoli sp. nov. is therefore proposed with strain SJ-36 T (=CGMCC 1.16756 T =KCTC 43039 T ) as the type strain.