Three Gram-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped bacterial strains were isolated, from the pollen of Japanese flowers, as producers of xylitol; these strains were subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. Phylogenetic analyses of the 16S rRNA gene sequences demonstrated that these three isolates formed a new cluster within a group of acetic acid bacteria in the α-Proteobacteria. The characteristics of the three isolates were as follows: (i) their predominant quinone was Q-10; (ii) their cellular fatty acid profile contained major amounts of 2-hydroxy acids and an unsaturated straight-chain acid (C18 : 1ω7c); and (iii) their DNA G+C contents were in the range 51·9–52·3 mol%, which is around the lower limit of the reported range for the genera of acetic acid bacteria. The negligible or very weak productivity of acetic acid from ethanol and the osmophilic growth properties distinguished these strains from other acetic acid bacteria. The unique phylogenetic and phenotypic characteristics suggest that the three isolates should be classified within a novel genus and species with the proposed name Saccharibacter floricola gen. nov., sp. nov. The type strain is strain S-877T (=AJ 13480T=JCM 12116T=DSM 15669T).
AsaiT.,
IizukaH.,
KomagataK.1964; The flagellation and taxonomy of genera Gluconobacter and Acetobacter with reference to the existence of intermediate strains. J Gen Appl Microbiol 10:95–126[CrossRef]
De LeyJ.,
FrateurJ.1974; Genus Acetobacter Beijerinck 1898, 215AL. In Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology
. , 8th edn. pp 276–278 Edited by
BuchananR. E.,
GibbonsN. E.
Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins;
De LeyJ.,
SwingsJ.,
GosseléF.1984; Genus I. Acetobacter Beijerinck 1898, 215AL
. In Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology vol 1 pp 268–274 Edited by
KriegN. R.,
HoltJ. G.
Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins;
FrankeI. H.,
FeganM.,
HaywardC.,
LeonardG.,
StackebrandtE.,
SlyL. I.1999; Description of Gluconacetobacter sacchari sp. nov., a new species of acetic acid bacterium isolated from the leaf sheath of sugar cane and from the pink sugar-cane mealy bug. Int J Syst Bacteriol 49:1681–1693[CrossRef]
HiraishiA.,
HoshinoY.,
KitamuraH.1984; Isoprenoid quinone composition in the classification of Rhodospirillaceae
. J Gen Appl Microbiol 30:197–210[CrossRef]
HiraishiA.,
HoshinoY.,
SatohT.1991; Rhodoferax fermentans gen. nov., sp. nov., a phototrophic purple nonsulfur bacterium previously referred to as the “ Rhodocyclus gelatinosus -like” group. Arch Microbiol 155:330–336
IizukaT.,
YamanakaS.,
NishiyamaT.,
HiraishiA.1998; Isolation and phylogenetic analysis of aerobic copiotrophic ultramicrobacteria from urban soil. J Gen Appl Microbiol 44:75–84[CrossRef]
KimuraM.1980; A simple method for estimating evolutionary rates of base substitutions through comparative studies of nucleotide sequences. J Mol Evol 16:111–120[CrossRef]
SieversM.,
LudwigW.,
TeuberM.1994; Phylogenetic positioning of Acetobacter , Gluconobacter , Rhodopila and Acidophilum species as a branch of acidophilic bacteria in the α -subclass of Proteobacteria based on 16S rDNA sequences. Syst Appl Microbiol 17:189–196[CrossRef]
TamaokaJ.,
KomagataK.1984; Determination of DNA base composition by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. FEMS Microbiol Lett 25:125–128[CrossRef]
ThompsonJ. D.,
HigginsD. G.,
GibsonT. J.1994; clustal w: improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice. Nucleic Acids Res 22:4673–4680[CrossRef]
YamadaY.,
OkadaY.,
KondoK.1976; Isolation and characterization of “polarly flagellated intermediate strains” in acetic acid bacteria. J Gen Appl Microbiol 22:237–245[CrossRef]