Belnapia moabensis gen. nov., sp. nov., an alphaproteobacterium from biological soil crusts in the Colorado Plateau, USA

Strain CP2C^T was isolated from biological soil crusts in the Colorado Plateau, USA. The isolate was aerobic, facultatively fermentative, Gram-negative, non-motile and red-pigmented (due to the presence of carotenoids), but did not contain bacteriochlorophyll a. The strain tested positive for catalase, oxidase and urease and was negative for lysine and ornithine decarboxylases and arginine dihydrolase. The major fatty acids present were C_18:1ω7c and C_16:0. It had a high DNA G + C content of 75 mol%. Comparisons of 16S rRNA gene sequences identified bacteriochlorophyll a-producing strains of Paracraurococcus ruber (94.9%), Craurococcus roseus (92.2%) and Roseococcus thiosulfatophilus (92.3%), as well as non-bacteriochlorophyll a-producing bacteria Muricoccus roseus (94.9%), Roseomonas gilardii (94.2%) and Roseomonas mucosa (93.8%), as the bacteria most closely related to strain CP2C^T. Phylogenetically, CP2C^T was placed roughly equidistantly from the above organisms. Based on its phylogenetic placement and morphological and physiological characteristics, strain CP2C^T is assigned to a new genus in the α-1 subgroup of the Proteobacteria, for which the name Belnapia gen. nov. is proposed. Strain CP2C^T (= ATCC BAA-1043^T = DSM 16746^T) is proposed as the type strain of the type species of this genus, with the name Belnapia moabensis gen. nov., sp. nov.