Paenibacillus albilobatus sp. nov., isolated from acidic soil on Jeju Island.

A rod-shaped, white color colony with lobate architectures, strain h2 was isolated from a moderately acidic soil on Jeju Island, Republic of Korea. Comparative analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that the strain h2 is closely related to Paenibacillus relictisesami DSM 25385 (97.4%, 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity), Paenibacillus azoreducens KACC 11244 (97.2%), and Paenibacillus cookii LMG 18419 (97.0%). DNA-DNA hybridization indicated that the strain h2 has relatively low levels of DNA-DNA relatedness with respect to P. relictisesami DSM 25385 (10.2%) and P. azoreducens KACC 11244 (13.7%). Additionally, the genomic DNA G + C content of h2 is 51.5 mol%. The isolated strain grew at pH 4.0-9.0 (optimum, pH 6.0-7.0) and 0-5% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0%) and a temperature of 15-45°C (optimum 35°C). The quinones in the strain are MK-6 and MK-7, and the predominant fatty acid is C anteiso (32.1%) followed by C anteiso (26.5%), and C iso (21.0%). Based on its phenotypic properties, genotypic distinctiveness, and chemotaxonomic features, strain h2 is proposed as a novel species in the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus albilobatus sp. nov. is proposed (= KCCM 43269 = JCM 32395 = LMG 30408). The type strain of Paenibacillus albilobatus is h2.