Description of Microvirga aerophila sp. nov. and Microvirga aerilata sp. nov., isolated from air, reclassification of Balneimonas flocculans Takeda et al. 2004 as Microvirga flocculans comb. nov. and emended description of the genus Microvirga

Abstract

Two bacterial strains, 5420S-12T and 5420S-16T, isolated from air samples, were characterized using a polyphasic approach. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain 5420S-12T was related phylogenetically to Microvirga subterranea FaiI4T (97.4 % sequence similarity) and Microvirga guangxiensis 25BT (97.1 %) and that strain 5420S-16T was closely related to Balneimonas flocculans TFBT (98.0 %) and Microvirga guangxiensis 25BT (97.2 %). The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 62.2 mol% for strain 5420S-12T and 61.5 mol% for strain 5420S-16T. The major fatty acid was C18 : 1 ω7c. The results of DNA–DNA hybridization and the phenotypic data showed that strains 5420S-12T and 5420S-16T could be distinguished from phylogenetically related species and represent two novel species within the genus Microvirga, for which the names Microvirga aerophila sp. nov. (type strain 5420S-12T =KACC 12743T =NBRC 106136T) and Microvirga aerilata sp. nov. (type strain 5420S-16T =KACC 12744T =NBRC 106137T) are proposed. Furthermore, the reclassification of Balneimonas flocculans as Microvirga flocculans comb. nov. (type strain TFBT =JCM 11936T =KCTC 12101T =IAM 15034T =ATCC BAA-817T) is proposed and an emended description of the genus Microvirga is provided.