Cellulomonas pakistanensis sp nov., a moderately halotolerant Actinobacteria

A rod-shaped, motile, facultatively anaerobic and moderately halotolerant plant-growth-promoting actinobacterial strain, designated NCCP-11(T), was isolated from paddy grains. To delineate its taxonomic position, the strain was subjected to a polyphasic characterization. Cells of strain NCCP-11(T) grew at 10-37 degrees C (optimum 28-32 degrees C), at pH 6-9 (optimum pH 7) and in 0-12% (w/v) NaCl (optimum 1-2%) in broth medium. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain NCCP-11(T) showed highest similarity to the type strains of Cellulomonas hominis (98.99%) and Cellulomonas denverensis (98.09 %) and less than 97% with other closely related taxa. The chemotaxonomic data [major menaquinone: MK-9(H4); cell-wall peptidoglycan: type A4 beta; major fatty acids: anteiso-C-15:0, C-16:0, C-14:0 and anteiso-C-17:0; major polar lipids: diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylinositolmannosides and two unknown polar lipids] also supported the affiliation of strain NCCP-11(T) to the genus Cellulomonas. The level of DNA-DNA relatedness between strain NCCP-11(T) and the two type strains mentioned above was less than 42.7%. On the basis of DNA-DNA relatedness, physiological and biochemical characteristics and phylogenetic position, strain NCCP-11(T) can be differentiated from species of the genus Cellulomonas with validly published names and thus represents a novel species, for which the name Cellulomonas pakistanensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NCCP-11(T) (=DSM 24792(T)=JCM 18755(T)=KCTC 19798(T)).