Description of Hymenobacter arizonensis sp. nov. from the southwestern arid lands of the United States of America

Strain OR362-8^T was isolated from a biological soil crust sample collected from the southwestern arid lands of the United States of America, using BG11-PGY medium. Cells of OR362-8^T were found to be rod shaped; occur singly, as pairs and in groups; non-motile; positive for catalase, oxidase, phosphatase and gelatinase; hydrolyze starch; contain iso-C _15:0, anteiso-C_15:0, iso-C_15:1G, C _16:1ω5c and summed feature 3 (C_16:1(ω7c)/iso- C_15:0 2OH as defined by the MIDI system) as the major fatty acids; and MK-7 as the sole respiratory quinone. A BLAST sequence similarity search using 16S rRNA gene sequence of OR362-8^T identified Hymenobacter as the nearest genus with a similarity of 90.4-96.9 %. The phylogenetic analyses based on the phenetic methods UPGMA, NJ, ME and DNA parsimony resulted in the clustering of OR362-8^T with Clade 1 Hymenobacter species represented by Hymenobacter glaciei, Hymenobacter antarcticus, Hymenobacter flocculans, Hymenobacter metalli and Hymenobacter soli with the closest being the Hymenobacter glaciei (96.9 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity). Besides the strong phylogentic affiliation, OR362-8^T also exhibited significant phenotypic and chemotaxonomic differences with the members of Clade 1 Hymenobacter spp. More importantly, the DNA G+C content (mol%) of OR362-8 ^T is very high (70 %) compared to the nearest species identified by phylogenetic analysis. Based on the phylogenetic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics, OR362-8^T was assigned to a novel species for which we propose here the name Hymenobacter arizonensis sp. nov., with OR362-8 ^T (=ATCC BAA 1266^T = DSM 17860^T = JCM 13504^T) as the type strain.