Pontibacter toksunensis sp. nov., isolated from soil, and emended descriptions of Pontibacter roseus and Pontibacter akesuensis.

A Gram-reaction-negative, rod-shaped, non-motile, red-pigmented bacterial strain, designated ZLD-7(T), was isolated from a soil sample collected from an arid area in Xinjiang Province in north-west China, and characterized by using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain ZLD-7(T) was a member of the genus Pontibacter in the family Cytophagaceae, with sequence similarities of 93.7-96.2 % to type strains of other Pontibacter species. The only isoprenoid quinone of strain ZLD-7(T) was MK-7, and its major cellular fatty acids were summed feature 4 (anteiso-C17 : 1 B and/or iso-C17 : 1 I), iso-C15 : 0, iso-C17 : 0 3-OH and summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c). The polar lipid profile consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, one unidentified aminolipid and four unidentified polar lipids. The DNA G+C content was 47.8 mol%. On the basis of the evidence presented, it is proposed that strain ZLD-7(T) represents a novel species of the genus Pontibacter, for which the name Pontibacter toksunensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is ZLD-7(T) ( = CCTCC AB 208003(T) = KCTC 23984(T)). Emended descriptions of Pontibacter roseus and Pontibacter akesuensis are also proposed.