Jeongeupia chitinilytica sp. nov., a chitinolytic bacterium isolated from soil.

A novel bacterium, designated strain Jchi(T), was isolated from soil in Taiwan and characterized using a polyphasic approach. Cells of strain Jchi(T) were aerobic, Gram-stain-negative, motile and rod-shaped. They contained poly-β-hydroxybutyrate granules and formed dark-yellow colonies. Growth occurred at 20-37 °C (optimum between 25 and 30 °C), at pH 6.0-8.0 (optimum between pH 7.0 and pH 8.0) and with 0-2 % NaCl (optimum between 0 and 1 %). Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain Jchi(T) belonged to the genus Jeongeupia and that its closest neighbour was Jeongeupia naejangsanensis BIO-TAS4-2(T) (98.0 % sequence similarity). The major fatty acids (>10 %) of strain Jchi(T) were summed feature 3 (comprising C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c), C16 : 0 and C18 : 1ω7c. The major cellular hydroxy fatty acid was C12 : 0 3-OH. The isoprenoid quinone was Q-8 and the genomic DNA G+C content was 66.1 mol%. The polar lipid profile consisted of a mixture of phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylserine and two unidentified phospholipids. The DNA-DNA relatedness value between strain Jchi(T) and J. naejangsanensis BIO-TAS4-2(T) was about 41.0 %. On the basis of the genotypic and phenotypic data, strain Jchi(T) represents a novel species in the genus Jeongeupia, for which the name Jeongeupia chitinilytica sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Jchi(T) ( = BCRC 80367(T)  = KCTC 23701(T)).