Exiguobacterium soli sp. nov., a psychrophilic bacterium from the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica

A novel psychrophilic bacterium, designated strain DVS 3YT, was isolated from a moraine sample from the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics and data from a phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain DVS 3YT was related to the genus Exiguobacterium. Strain DVS 3YT exhibited >97% gene sequence similarity with respect to Exiguobacterium acetylicum DSM 20416T (97.4%), Exiguobacterium oxidotolerans DSM 17272T (97.4%), Exiguobacterium indicum IAM 15368T (97.6%), Exiguobacterium undae DSM 14481T (98.2%), Exiguobacterium sibiricum DSM 17290T (98.6%) and Exiguobacterium antarcticum DSM 14480T (99.6%). However, the levels of DNA-DNA relatedness between strain DVS 3YT and E. acetylicum DSM 20416T, E. oxidotolerans JCM 12280T, E. indicum IAM 15368T, E. undae DSM 14481T, E. sibiricum DSM 17290T and E. antarcticum DSM 14480T were less than 70% (52, 25, 16, 33, 16 and 38?%, respectively). Strain DVS 3YT also differed from these six closely related species in a number of phenotypic traits. Phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data suggest that strain DVS 3YT represents a novel species of the genus Exiguobacterium, for which the name Exiguobacterium soli sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is DVS 3YT (=MTCC 4816T=JCM 14376T)