Glaciimonas immobilis gen. nov., sp nov., a member of the family Oxalobacteraceae isolated from alpine glacier cryoconite

Strains Cr9-30(T) and Cr9-12 were isolated from alpine glacier cryoconite. Both strains were Gram-negative-staining, non-motile, rod-shaped and psychrophilic, showing good growth over the temperature range 1-20 degrees C. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the two strains formed a distinct branch within the family Oxalobacteraceae and were most closely related to members of the genus Collimonas. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity between strains Cr9-30(T) and Cr9-12 was 99.0%. The two strains showed highest 16S rRNA gene sequence pairwise similarity with Collimonas pratensis LMG 23965(T) (96.6 and 96.1% for strains Cr9-30(T) and Cr9-12, respectively), Collimonas arenae LMG 23964(T) (96.5 and 96.3%, respectively) and Collimonas fungivorans LMG 21973(T) (96.4 and 96.2%, respectively). The predominant cellular fatty acids were summed feature 3 (C-16:1 omega 7c and/or iso-C-15:0 2-OH), C-16:0 and C-18:1 omega 7c. The DNA G + C content of strain Cr9-30(T) was 51.0 mol%. On the basis of phenotypic characteristics and phylogenetic analysis, strains Cr9-30(T) and Cr9-12 represent a novel species in a new genus of the family Oxalobacteraceae, for which the name Glaciimonas immobilis gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Glaciimonas immobilis is Cr9-30(T) (=DSM 23240(T)=LMG 25547(T)).