Alcanivorax mobilis sp nov., a new hydrocarbon-degrading bacterium isolated from deep-sea sediment

A taxonomic study was carried out on strain MT13131(T), which was isolated from deep-sea sediment of the Indian Ocean during the screening of oil-degrading bacteria. The chain length range of n-alkanes (C-8 to C-32) oxidized by strain MT13131(T) was determined in this study. The bacterium was Gram-negative, oxidase- and catalase-positive, single rod shaped, and motile by peritrichous flagella. Growth was observed at salinities of 1-12% and at temperatures of 10-42 degrees C. The isolate was capable of Tween 20, 40 and 80 hydrolysis, but incapable of gelatin, cellulose or starch hydrolysis. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain MT13131(T) belonged to the genus Alcanivorax, with highest sequence similarity to Alcanivorax marinus R8-12(T) (96.92 %), other species of genus Alcanivorax shared 92.96-96.69% sequence similarity. The principal fatty acids were summed feature 3 (C-16:1 omega 6c/omega 7c), summed feature 8 (C-18:1 omega 7c/omega 6c), C-16:0 and C-12:0 OH. The G+C content of the chromosomal DNA was 64.2 mol%. Phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, three aminolipids and three phospholipids were present. The combined genotypic and phenotypic data showed that strain MT13131(T) represents a novel species within the genus Alcanivorax, for which the name Alcanivorax mobilis sp. nov. is proposed, with the type strain MT13131(T) (= MCCC 1A11581(T) = KCTC 52985(T)).