Abstract
Strain BL24(T), isolated from bamboo phyllosphere collected in Coimbatore, India, was studied for taxonomic classification. Cells of the strain were aerobic, Gram-stain-positive, motile, catalaseand oxidase-positive rods and grew on media containing methanol. In 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain BL24(T) showed the highest sequence similarities with Paenibacillus phyllosphaeraeKACC 11473(T) (97.8 %) and Paenibacillus sacheonensisSY01 (95.1 %). DNA-DNA hybridization with P. phyllosphaerae KACC 11473(T), phylogenetically the most closely related species, was 21.6 %; this value showed that strain BL24(T) belonged to a different species. The cell-wall peptidoglycan was found to possess meso-diaminopimelic acid and the G+C content of genomic DNA was 52.1 mol %. It contained menaquinone (MK)-7 as the predominant respiratory quinone and the major cellular fatty acids are C-16 : 0, anteiso-C-15 : 0, iso-C-16 : 0, and anteiso-C-17 : 0. Based on the molecular and chemotaxonomic markers and physiological properties, strain BL24(T) (= NRRL B-51698(T) = CCM 7577(T)) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus methanolicusis proposed.