Exiguobacterium indicum sp. nov., a psychrophilic bacterium from the Hamta glacier of the Himalayan mountain ranges of India

Abstract

Strain HHS 31^T, a Gram-positive, motile, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming, alkaliphilic bacterium, was isolated from the melt water of a glacier. Phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics indicate that strain HHS 31^T is related to species of the genus Exiguobacterium. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities between HHS 31^T and strains of known species confirm that it is closely related to members of the genus Exiguobacterium (93-99%) and that it exhibits >97% similarity with Exiguobacterium acetylicum DSM 20416^T (98.9%), Exiguobacterium antarcticum DSM 14480^T (98.0%), Exiguobacterium oxidotolerans JCM 12280^T (97.9%) and Exiguobacterium undae DSM 14481^T (97.4%). Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence further confirms the affiliation of HHS 31T with the genus Exiguobacterium. However, the levels of DNA-DNA relatedness between HHS 31^T and E. oxidotolerans JCM 12280T, E. acetylicum DSM 20416^T, E. undae DSM 14481^T and E. antarcticum DSM 14480^T are 50, 63, 67 and 28%, respectively. Strain HHS 31^T also differs from these four closely related species in terms of a number of phenotypic traits. The phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data suggest that HHS 31^T merits the status of a novel species, for which the name Exiguobacterium indicum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is HHS 31^T (=LMG 23471^T=IAM 15368^T).