Aeromonas sharmana sp nov., isolated from a warm spring

A Gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic bacterial strain designated GPTSA-6 T was isolated from a water sample collected from a warm spring in Assam, India. Preliminary analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence of this isolate revealed its affiliation to the family Aeromonadaceae. Detailed characterization using a polyphasic approach indicated that strain GPTSA-6 T is Most closely related to Aeromonas sobria but differs significantly from existing members of the genus Aeromonas. Analysis of the almost-complete (11430 nt) 16S rRNA gene sequence of this strain revealed that its closest relative (99.23% similarity) is an uncultured bacterial clone, A-8, isolated from an algal bloom. Of the taxa with validly published names, Aeromonas sobria ATCC 43979(T) showed the highest level of sequence similarity (95.13%) with respect to strain GPTSA-6 followed by Aeromonas molluscorum 848T(T) and Aeromonas popoffii LMG 17541(T) (95.04% similarity in both cases). On the basis of the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data, it can be concluded that strain GPTSA-6 T represents a novel species of the genus Aeromonas, for which the name Aeromonas sharmana sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is GPTSA-6 T (= MTCC 7090(T) =DSM 17445(T)).