Schleiferia thermophila gen. nov., sp nov., a slightly thermophilic bacterium of the phylum 'Bacteroidetes' and the proposal of Schleiferiaceae fam. nov.

A bacterial isolate, with an optimum growth temperature of about 50 degrees C and an optimum pH for growth between 7.5 and 8.5, was recovered from a hot spring in the Furnas area of the Island of Sao Miguel in the Azores. The novel isolate is orange-pigmented, forms non-motile, rod-shaped cells that stain Gram-negative, is strictly aerobic, oxidase-positive and catalase-negative. The major fatty acids of strain TU-20(T) are 16:1 omega 6c, 17:0 iso 3-OH and 15:0 iso. Menaquinone 6 is the major respiratory quinone. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, physiological and biochemical characteristics, we describe a novel species of a novel genus represented by strain TU-20(T) (=DSM 21410(T) =LMG 24594(T)) for which we propose the name Schleiferia thermophila gen nov., sp. nov. We also propose the family Schleiferiaceae fam. nov. to accommodate this new genus.