Abstract
A novel exopolysaccharide-producing bacterium (WN9(T)) was isolated from Chinju, Korea, and was identified as a member of the genus Paenibacillus on the basis of phenotypic characteristics and phylogenetic inference based on 16S rDNA sequence. This organism is a facultatively anaerobic, endospore-forming rod. The diamino acid found in the peptidoglycan is meso-diaminopimelic acid. The predominant menaquinone is MK-7. The major cellular fatty acid is anteiso-C(15:0). The G+C content is 53 mol%. The phylogenetic tree shows that strain WN9(T) falls within the radiation of a cluster comprising the Paenibacillus species. The levels of 16S rDNA similarity between strain WN9(T) and the type strains of validly described Paenibacillus species are 92.1--95.8%. Strain WN9(T) is clearly distinguishable from some phylogenetically related Paenibacillus species on the basis of DNA--DNA relatedness data and phenotypic characters. Therefore, on the basis of these data, a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, Paenibacillus chinjuensis sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is strain WN9(T) (=KCTC 8951P(T)=JCM 10939(T)).