Microbacterium indicum sp. nov., isolated from a deep-sea sediment sample from the Chagos Trench, Indian Ocean

Abstract

Two bacterial strains, BBH6^T and BBH9, were isolated from a deep-sea sediment sample collected from the Chagos Trench, Indian Ocean, at a depth of 5904 m. The two strains were closely related in their 16S rRNA gene sequences (99.7%), belonged to one genomic species and were virtually identical at the phenotypic level. Microbacterium barkeri DSM 20145^T was the nearest phylogenetic neighbour to the new isolates, with 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity levels of 97.2-97.4%. The new isolates exhibited levels of DNA-DNA relatedness of 32-34% to M. barkeri and differed from it in a number of phenotypic characteristics. Therefore, it is suggested that strains BBH6^T and BBH9 represent a novel species of the genus Microbacterium, for which the name Microbacterium indicum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is BBH6^T (=LMG 23459^T=IAM 15355^T).