Gordonibacillus kamchatkensis gen. nov., sp. nov. from the Frozen Volcanic Ash

An aerobic, rod-shaped, non-motile, endospore-forming bacterium, strain V-9T, was found in the frozen volcanic ash, Kamchatka peninsula, Russia. Phylogenies based on 16S rRNA gene and genome sequences demonstrated that strain V-9T was affiliated with the family Paenibacillaceae and clustered outside the clade that includes the type species of this genus, Paenibacillus polymyxa, and closely related species. V-9T showed the highest 16S rRNA gene sequences similarity to Paenibacillus chartarius CCUG 55240T (96.7%). The similarity to type strains of other Paenibacillus species were below 94.7%, with 91.8% determined to Paenibacillus polymyxa IAM 13419T. The AAI and POCP values between V-9T and type species of the genera of Paenibacillaceae with available genomes, including Paenibacillus polymyxa, were below the thresholds for defining novel genera. The cell wall of new strain contained a lysine-based peptidoglycan and two teichoic acids, unsubstituted 1,3-poly(glycerol phosphate) and 1,3-poly(glycerol phosphate) substituted at the C(2) of glycerol by glucose. Acid hydrolysates of the cell wall included glucose, galactose and glycerol. Strain V-9T contained menaquinone MK-7 as the sole isoprenoid quinone, anteiso-C15:0, anteiso-C17:0, iso- C15:0 and iso-C16:0a as the dominant fatty acids, and phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, acylphosphatidylglycerol, and phosphatidylinositol as the major polar lipids. The DNA G+C content calculated from the whole genome sequence was 55 mol %. Based on the data obtained, a new genus and species, Gordonibacillus kamchatkensis gen. nov., sp. nov., is proposed with the type strain V-9T (=VKM B-2647T = DSM 26726T).