Fictibacillus aquaticus sp. nov., isolated from downstream river water.

A Gram-stain-positive, facultatively anaerobic bacterial strain, GDSW-R2A3, was isolated from a downstream water sample collected from the river Ganges, India. Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain GDSW-R2A3 revealed its affiliation to the family Bacillaceae. Further analysis using a polyphasic approach revealed that strain GDSW-R2A3 was most closely related to the genus Fictibacillus. Analysis of the almost-complete (1488 bp) 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain GDSW-R2A3 revealed the highest level of sequence similarity with Fictibacillus phosphorivorans CCM 8426 (98.3 %) and Fictibacillus nanhaiensis KCTC 13712 (98.3 %) followed by Fictibacillus barbaricus DSM 14730 (98.0 %). The digital DNA-DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity (ANI) values between strain GDSW-R2A3 and the most closely related taxon, F. phosphorivorans CCM 8426, were 20.3 and 78.2 %, respectively. The DNA G+C content of the strain was 44.2 mol%. The cell-wall amino acid was meso-diaminopimelic acid. Polar lipids present were phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, three aminophospholipids, two phospholipids and one unidentified lipid; the major menaquinone was MK-7; iso-C14 : 0, iso-C15 : 0 and anteiso-C15 : 0 were the major fatty acids. On the basis of the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data, it can be concluded that strain GDSW-R2A3 represents a novel species of the genus Fictibacillus, for which the name Fictibacillus aquaticus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is GDSW-R2A3 (=VTCC-B-910015=CCM 8782).