Pedobacter cryoconitis sp. nov., a facultative psychrophile from alpine glacier cryoconite

Abstract

On the basis of phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, a novel species belonging to the genus Pedobacter is described. A facultatively psychrophilic, Gram-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped strain, A37T, was isolated from alpine glacier cryoconite. The non-flagellated and non-spore-forming isolate grew over a temperature range of 1–25 °C, showed activities of oxidase, catalase, DNase, protease (gelatin, casein), amylase, β-glucosidase, β-galactosidase and β-lactamase and degraded oil hydrocarbons. A distinct optimum temperature of 15 °C was observed for both protease production and oil hydrocarbon biodegradation. Analysis of 16S rDNA revealed that strain A37T represents a distinct taxon within Pedobacter. DNA from strain A37T showed only 19·7 % genetic relatedness to the DNA of Pedobacter piscium. The DNA G+C content was 43·4 mol%. Dominant fatty acids (51 %) were iso-15 : 0 2-OH and 16 : 1ω7c. The strain is assigned to a novel Pedobacter species, for which the name Pedobacter cryoconitis sp. nov. is proposed, with A37T (=DSM 14825T=LMG 21415T) as the type strain.