Paenibacillus methanolicus sp nov., a xylanolytic, methanol-utilizing bacterium isolated from the phyllosphere of bamboo (Pseudosasa japonica)

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.