Jaisoo Kim

Rod-shaped Gram-stain-negative, aerobic bacterial strains, designated PC14 and PC15 T , were isolated from a forest soil sample collected in Pyeongchang county, Gangwon-do, Republic of Korea. Strains PC14 and PC15 T grew at 15–37 °C (optimum, 28–30 °C in tryptone soya agar and Mueller–Hinton agar), hydrolysed chitin and casein, and tolerated pH 8.5 and 2 % (w/v) NaCl. The strains were most closely related to members of the genus Chitinophaga , namely Chitinophaga arvensicola DSM 3695 T (98.4 %), Chitinophaga longshanensis Z29 T (98.3 %), Chitinophaga ginsengisegetis Gsoil 040 T (97.8 %), Chitinophaga polysaccharea MRP-15 T (97.8 %) and Chitinophaga niastensis JS16-4 T (97.7 %). The type strain grew well on conventional commercial media in the laboratory, including tryptone soya agar, Mueller–Hinton agar, Reasoner's 2A agar, nutrient agar and Luria–Bertani agar. The major polar lipid profile comprised phosphatidylethanolamine, an unidentified aminolipid and unidentified polar lipids. The major respiratory quinone was menaquinone-7. The main fatty acids were iso-C 15:0 , C 16:1 ω5 c , C 16:0 3-OH, iso-C 15:0 3-OH and iso-C 17:0 3-OH. The DNA G+C content of the isolated strain based on the whole genome sequence was 46.6 mol%. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA–DNA hybridization values between strains PC14 and PC15 T and the reference type strains ranged from 71.0 to 76.5 %, and from 20.3 to 20.7 %, respectively. Based on phenotypic, chemotypic and genotypic evidence, strain PC15 T could be differentiated phylogenetically and phenotypically from the recognized species of the genus <jats:named-co