Strain S22(T), a novel cellulolytic bacterium was isolated from the rhizosphere of pine trees. This isolate was Gram-reaction positive, motile and rods, and formed terminal or subterminal ellipsoidal spores. S22(T) represented positive activity for catalase, oxidase, esterase (C4), esterase lipase (C8), beta-galactosidase, leucine arylamidase, and hydrolysis of esculin. It contained meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic dia-mino acid in the cell-wall. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was menaquinone 7 (MK-7), and the major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C(15:0) (52.9%), iso-Ci(16:0) (11.3%), and iso-C(15:0) (10.0%). The DNA G+C content was 43.3 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that this isolate belonged to the family Paenibacillaceae. S22(T) exhibited less than 97.0% 16S rRNA gene similarity with all relative type strains in the genus Paenibacillus, and the most closely related strains were Paenibacillus anaericanus MH21(T) and Paenibacillus ginsengisoli Gsoil 1638(T), with equal similarities of 95.8%. This polyphasic evidence suggested that strain S22(T) should be considered a novel species in the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name, Paenibacillus pini sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is S22(T) (=KCTC 13694(T) =KACC 14198(T) =JCM 16418(T)).

Bacteriophage P4, a satellite phage of coliphage P2, is a very useful experimental tool for the study of viral capsid assembly and cos-cleavage. For an in vitro cos-cleavage reaction study of the P2-P4 system, new shortened and selectable markers containing P4 derivative plasmids were designed as a substrate molecules. They were constructed by swapping the non-essential segment of P4 DNA for either the kanamycin resistance (kmr) gene or the ampicillin resistance (apr) gene. The size of the genomes of the resulting markers were 82% (P4 ash8 delRI:: kmr) and 79% (P4 ash8 delRI:: apr) of the wild type P4 genome. To determine the lower limit of genome size that could be packaged into the small P4-size head, these shortened P4 plasmids were converted to phage particles with infection of the helper phage P2. The conversion of plasmid P4 derivatives to bacteriophage particles was verified by the heat stability test and the burst size determination experiment. CsCl buoyant equilibrium density gradient experiments confirmed not only the genome size of the viable phage form of shortened P4 derivatives, but also their packaging into the small P4-size head. P4 ash8 delRI:: apr turned out to be the smallest P4 genome that can be packaged into P4-sized head.

During a search for exo-enzyme-producing bacteria in the gut of an insect, Diestrammena apicalis, a novel bacterium capable of degrading pectin was isolated. The isolate, designated strain RCB-08 T , comprised Gram-positive, endospore-forming, motile rods capable of growth at 15-30 6C and pH 6.0-8.7. The DNA G+C content of the isolate was 51.5 mol% and the predominant cellular fatty acid was anteiso-C 15 : 0 (74.1 %). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain RCB-08 T was affiliated with a cluster within the Paenibacillaceae, and was related most closely to Paenibacillus chondroitinus NBRC 15376 T , with a sequence similarity of 96.7 %. The DNA-DNA relatedness value for strain RCB-08 T with P. chondroitinus NBRC 15376 T was 15.0 %. Strain RCB-08 T hydrolysed pectin, but not cellulose, casein, starch or xylan. Strain RCB-08 T could be clearly distinguished from other Paenibacillus species on the basis of characteristics observed using a polyphasic approach. Therefore strain RCB-08 T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus pectinilyticus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is RCB-08 T (5KCTC 13222 T 5CECT 7358 T ).The genus Paenibacillus, proposed in 1993 by Ash et al. (1993) to accommodate the rRNA group 3 bacilli, comprises many recently described species that were isolated from a wide variety of sources, including antarctic sediments (Montes et al., 2004), warm springs (Saha et al., 2005), rice fields (Sánchez et al., 2005), garden peas (Šmerda et al., 2005), air (Rivas et al., 2005a), plant rhizospheres (Rivas et al., 2005b) and alkaline soils (Yoon et al., 2005). Some strains of this genus have a distinct ability to hydrolyse hydrocarbons or complex carbohydrates, including alginate (Nakamura, 1987), cellulose (Rivas et al., 2006), chondroitin (Nakamura, 1987, curdlan (Kanzawa et al., 1995), extracellular polysaccharides (Takeda et al., 2005), naphthalene (Daane et al., 2002) and xylan (Lee et al., 2000; Velázquez et al., 2004;Rivas et al., 2005a).Insects and their gut bacteria often have a symbiotic relationship (Breznak, 1982;Chen & Purcell, 1997), and high bacterial diversity was observed when the bacterial communities of the gut compartments of the gypsy moth and European cockchafer were evaluated (Broderick et al., 2004;Egert et al., 2005). It is believed that the digestion of wood constituents such as cellulose, xylan, lignin and pectin is catalysed by digestive enzymes produced by symbiotic micro-organisms harboured in the guts of insects (Brune & Friedrich, 2000;Suh et al., 2003), and a large number of exo-enzyme-producing bacteria were reported recently in an analysis of bacteria isolated from the guts of beetle species (Park et al., 2007).In a study of bacteria capable of producing enzymes that degrade polymer, a number of novel bacterial strains were isolated from the gut of an insect, Diestrammena apicalis, collected near the Daejeon district, Republic of Korea. One isolate, designated strain RCB-08 T...