Bryocella elongata gen. nov., sp. nov., a member of subdivision 1 of the Acidobacteria isolated from a methanotrophic enrichment culture, and emended description of Edaphobacter aggregans Koch et al. 2008

An aerobic, pink-pigmented, chemo-organotrophic bacterium, designated strain SN10T, was isolated from a methanotrophic enrichment culture obtained from an acidic Sphagnum peat. This isolate was represented by Gram-negative, non-motile rods that multiply by normal cell division and form rosettes. Strain SN10T is an obligately acidophilic, mesophilic bacterium capable of growth at pH 3.2–6.6 (with an optimum at pH 4.7–5.2) and at 6–32 °C (with an optimum at 20–24 °C). The preferred growth substrates are sugars and several heteropolysaccharides of plant and microbial origin, such as pectin, lichenan, fucoidan and gellan gum. While not being capable of growth on C1 compounds, strain SN10T can develop in co-culture with exopolysaccharide-producing methanotrophs by utilization of their capsular material. The major fatty acids determined in strain SN10T using the conventional lipid extraction procedure are iso-C15 : 0 and C16 : 1ω7c. Upon hydrolysis of total cell material, substantial amounts of the uncommon membrane-spanning lipid 13,16-dimethyl octacosanedioic acid (isodiabolic acid) were also detected. The polar lipids are two phosphohexoses, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and several phospholipids of unknown structure. The major quinone is MK-8. Pigments are carotenoids. The G+C content of the DNA is 60.7 mol%. Strain SN10T forms a separate lineage within subdivision 1 of the phylum Acidobacteria and displays 94.0–95.4 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to members of the genera Edaphobacter and Granulicella, 93.0–93.7 % similarity to members of the genus Terriglobus and 92.2–92.3 % similarity to the type strains of Telmatobacter bradus and Acidobacterium capsulatum. Therefore, strain SN10T is classified within a novel genus and species, for which the name Bryocella elongata gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. Strain SN10T ( = LMG 25276T = DSM 22489T) is the type strain of Bryocella elongata. An emended description of Edaphobacter aggregans Koch et al. 2008 is also given.