A psychrotolerant chitinolytic bacterium, designated NC1253T, was isolated from Zoige wetland on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. This strain was a Gram-stain-positive, spore-forming and rod-shaped anaerobe. NC1253T grew at 4-35 °C, at pH 6.0-8.5 and could grow on chitin as the only carbon resource. Phylogenetic analysis, based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence, showed that strain NC1253T represented a novel bacterial genus within the family Ruminococcaceae. Strain NC1253T has less than 91.0 % similarity with other type strains, such as Harryflintia acetispora V20-281aT (90.9 %), Clostridium methylpentosum DSM 5476T (90.8 %), Anaerotruncus colihominis DSM 17241T (89.8 %), Eubacterium siraeum DSM 15702T (89.6 %), and Acetanaerobacterium elongatum Z7T (89.6 %). The major components of the cellular fatty acids were iso-C14 : 0, anteiso-C15 : 0, C16 : 0 and anteiso-C17 : 0. The genomic DNA G+C content was 35.4 mol%. Phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic characteristics allowed strain NC1253T to be clearly distinguished from genera in the family Ruminococcaceae. On the basis of polyphasic taxonomic data, the isolate is considered to represent a novel genus and novel species in the family Ruminococcaceae, for which the name Paludicola psychrotolerans gen. nov., sp. nov., is proposed. The type species is NC1253T (DSM 104738T=KCTC 15582T).
Keywords: Paludicola psychrotolerans; Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau; chitinolysis; psychrotroph; wetland soil.