Mucilaginibacter pineti sp. nov., isolated from Pinus pinaster wood from a mixed grove of pines trees

Bacterial strain M47C3BT was isolated from the endophytic microbial community of a Pinus pinaster tree branch from a mixed grove of pines. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that this organism represented one distinct branch within the family Sphingobacteriaceae , most closely related to the genus Mucilaginibacter . Strain M47C3BT formed a distinct lineage, closely related to Mucilaginibacter dorajii KACC 14556T, with which it shared 97.2 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity. The other members of the genus Mucilaginibacter included in the same clade were Mucilaginibacter lappiensis ATCC BAA-1855T sharing 97.0 % similarity and Mucilaginibacter composti TR6-03T that had a lower similarity (95.7 %). The novel strain was Gram-staining-negative, formed rod-shaped cells, grew optimally at 26 °C and at pH 7, and was able to grow with up to 0.3 % (w/v) NaCl. The respiratory quinone was menaquinone 7 (MK-7) and the major fatty acids of the strain were summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c/iso-C15 : 0 2-OH), iso-C15 : 0 and iso-C17 : 0 3-OH, representing 73.5 % of the total fatty acids. The major components of the polar lipid profile of strain M47C3BT consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, three unidentified aminophospholipids, one unidentified aminolipid and three unidentified polar lipids. The G+C content of the DNA was 40.6 mol%. On the basis of the phylogenetic analysis and physiological and biochemical characteristics we propose the name Mucilaginibacter pineti sp. nov. for the novel species represented by strain M47C3BT ( = CIP 110632T = LMG 28160T).