Hymenobacter busanensis sp. nov., radiation-resistant species isolated from soil in South Korea

Two bacterial strains designated as MA3^T and BT182 were isolated from a soil sample in South Korea. Cells of the two strains were Gram-stain-negative, non-motile, rod-shaped and formed red colonies on R2A agar at 25 °C. The 16S rRNA genes of the two strains shared a sequence similarity of 99.8%. Both strains shared the highest 16S rRNA gene similarity of 96.8% with Hymenobacter edaphi NL^T, followed by Hymenobacter paludis KBP-30^T (96.3%), Hymenobacter coalescens WW84^T (96.3%) and Hymenobacter gummosus ANT-18^T (96.3%). Growth was observed at 15–37 °C (optimum 30 °C), pH 6–8 (optimum pH 7) and in the presence up to 1% NaCl. The genome size of strains MA3^T and BT182 is 4.9 Mb and 4.8 Mb, respectively. The genomic G + C content of both strains is 62.0 mol%. The main polar lipid of the strains was phosphatidylethanolamine, the only respiratory quinone detected was menaquinone-7 and the major fatty acids were anteiso-C_15:0, iso-C_15:0, summed feature 4 (iso-C_17:1 I/anteiso-C_17:1 B) and summed feature 3 (C_16:1ω6c/C_16:1ω7c), supporting the affiliation of these strains with the genus Hymenobacter. Based on the phylogenetic, genotypic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic data, strains MA3^T and BT182 represent a novel species of the genus Hymenobacter, for which the name Hymenobacter busanensis is proposed. The type strain is MA3^T (= KCTC 72631^T = NBRC 114193^T).