Sphingobacterium rhinocerotis sp. nov., isolated from the faeces of Rhinoceros unicornis.

A novel Gram-negative, strictly aerobic, short rod-shaped, non-motile bacterium, designated YIM 101302, was isolated from the faeces of Rhinoceros unicornis dwelling in the Yunnan Wild Animal Park, Yunnan province, South-West China. The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed a clear affiliation of strain YIM 101302 to the genus Sphingobacterium. The newly isolated bacterium was found to be closely related to Sphingobacterium composti T5-12 (97.1 % 16S rRNA sequence identity) and Sphingobacterium alimentarium WCC 4521 (95.6 % 16S rRNA sequence identity) forming a distinct clade with these two species. Polar lipids of strain YIM 101302 were identified as phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylmethylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, an unidentified aminophospholipid, and three unidentified polar lipids; the predominant menaquinone as MK-7 and the major fatty as iso-C. The genomic DNA G+C content was determined to be 38.9 mol%. The DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain YIM 101302 and S. composti T5-12, was 53.6 ± 5.8 %. These results indicates that strain YIM 101302 represents a novel species of the genus Sphingobacterium, for which the name Sphingobacterium rhinocerotis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM 101302 (=CCTCC AB 2013218 = KCTC 42533). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]