Planococcus versutus sp. nov., isolated from soil

A taxonomic study was performed on a novel Gram-stain-positive, coccus-shaped, orange-pigmented motile bacterium, designated as strain L10.15^T. The organism was isolated from a soil sample collected in Lagoon Island (close to Adelaide Island, western Antarctic Peninsula) using a quorum-quenching enrichment medium. Growth occurred at 4–30 °C, pH 6–11 and at moderately high salinity (0–15 %, w/v, NaCl), with optimal growth at 26 °C, at pH 7–8 and with 6% (w/v) NaCl. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain L10.15^T belonged to the genus Planococcus and was closely related to Planococcus halocryophilus Or1^T (99.3% similarity), Planococcus donghaensis JH1^T (99.0 %), Planococcus antarcticus DSM 14505^T (98.3 %), Planococcus plakortidis AS/ASP6 (II)T (97.6 %), Planococcus maritimus TF-9^T (97.5 %), Planococcus salinarum ISL-6^T (97.5 %) and Planococcus kocurii NCIMB 629^T (97.5 %). However, the average nucleotide identity-MUMmer analysis showed low genomic relatedness values of 71.1–81.7% to the type strains of these closely related species of the genus Planococcus. The principal fatty acids were anteiso-C_{15: 0}, C_{16: 1ω}7c and anteiso-C_{17: 0}, and the major menaquinones of strain L10.15^T were MK-5 (48 %), MK-6 (6 %) and MK-7 (44 %). Polar lipid analysis revealed the presence of phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol and aminophospholipid. The DNA G+C content was 39.4 mol%. The phenotypic and genotypic data indicate that strain L10.15^T represents a novel species of the genus Planococcus, for which the name Planococcus versutus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is L10.15^T (=DSM 101994^T=KACC 18918^T).