In this study, bacterial strains Ha5T, Ta1, and Jb2 were isolated
from different colonies of weaver ant Oecophylla smaragdina.
They were identified as bacterial symbionts of the ant belonging
to family Acetobacteraceae and were distinguished as
different strains based on distinctive random-amplified polymorphic
DNA (RAPD) fingerprints. Cells of these bacterial
strains were Gram-negative, rod-shaped, aerobic, non-motile,
catalase-positive and oxidase-negative. They were able
to grow at 15–37°C (optimum, 28–30°C) and in the presence
of 0–1.5% (w/v) NaCl (optimum 0%). Their predominant cellular
fatty acids were C18:1 ω7c, C16:0, C19:0 ω8c cyclo, C14:0, and
C16:0 2-OH. Strains Ha5T, Ta1, and Jb2 shared highest 16S
rRNA gene sequence similarity (94.56–94.63%) with Neokomagataea
tanensis NBRC106556T of family Acetobacteraceae.
Both 16S rRNA gene sequence-based phylogenetic analysis
and core gene-based phylogenomic analysis placed them in
a distinct lineage in family Acetobacteraceae. These bacterial
strains shared higher than species level thresholds in multiple
overall genome-relatedness indices which indicated that
they belonged to the same species. In addition, they did not
belong to any of the current taxa of Acetobacteraceae as they
had low pairwise average nucleotide identity (< 71%), in silico
DNA-DNA hybridization (< 38%) and average amino acid
identity (< 67%) values with all the type members of the family.
Based on these results, bacterial strains Ha5T, Ta1, and Jb2 represent
a novel species of a novel genus in family Acetobacteraceae,
for which we propose the name Oecophyllibacter saccharovorans
gen. nov. sp. nov., and strain Ha5T as the type
strain.
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