The genus Ramlibacter, a new genus of the family Comamonadaceae in the class Betaproteobacteria, was first proposed by Heulin et al. with Ramlibacter tataouinensis as the type species, which was isolated from subdesert soil [1]. At the time of writing, the genus comprises 10 validly published species (https://lpsn.dsmz.de/genus/ ramlibacter) isolated primarily from soil habitats, such as subdesert soil [1], ginseng soil [2, 3], forest soil [4-6], and garden soil [7,8]. An exception is Ramlibacter aquaticus LMG 30558 T , which was isolated from a water environment [9]. The genus Ramlibacter includes gram-negative, catalase-positive, oxidase-variable, aerobic, and non-motile (by flagella) rod or coccoid bacteria containing ubiquinone-8 (Q-8) and C 16:0 , cyclo-C 17:0 , and summed feature 3 (C 16:1 ω7c and/or C 16:1 ω6c) as the major respiratory quinone and fatty acids, respectively [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. The DNA G+C content of Ramlibacter species ranges from 62.0-70.6 mol%. In this study, we isolated two strains, presumably representing novel species of the genus Ramlibacter, from soil samples collected from different areas in South Korea and taxonomically characterized them using a polyphasic approach.
Material and Methods
Isolation and CultivationStrains H242 T and B156 T were isolated from flatland near a river (37°15′04.2′′N, 128°32′26.3′′E) and mountain (37°15′38.7′′N, 128°36′28.6′′E), respectively, in Gangwon Province of South Korea, according to a previously described procedure [10]. In brief, soil samples were collected in sterile plastic tubes and stored in an icebox for transport. The soil samples were resuspended and serially diluted in phosphate-buffered saline (137 mM NaCl, 2.7 mM KCl, 10 mM Na 2 HPO 4 , 2 mM KH 2 PO 4 , pH 7.2). The serially diluted aliquots (100 μl) were spread on R2A agar (BD, USA), and the agar plates were incubated aerobically at 30 °C for 3 d. The 16S rRNA genes of colonies grown on R2A agar were PCR-amplified using the universal primers F1 (5′-AGA GTT TGA TCM TGG CTC AG-3′) and R13 (5′-TAC GGY TAC CTT GTT ACG ACT T-3′) and double-digested with HaeIII and HhaI. The representative PCR amplicons of 16S rRNA genes showing different fragment patterns were partially sequenced using the universal primer 340F (5′-CCT ACG GGA GGC AGC AG-3′) at Macrogen (Korea). The resulting sequences were compared with all validly reported type strains using the Nucleotide Similarity Search program on Two gram-negative, catalase-positive, strictly aerobic, and white colony-forming bacteria, strains H242 T and B156 T , were isolated from soil in South Korea. Cells of strain H242 T were oxidase-positive and non-motile short rods, while those of strain B156 T were oxidase-negative and long non-motile rods. Ubiquinone-8 was identified as the sole isoprenoid quinone in both strains. C 16:0 , cyclo-C 17:0 , and summed feature 3 (C 16:1 ω7c and/or C 16:1 ω6c) and phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, and diphosphatidylglycerol were identified in both strains as the major cellular fatty acids an...