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Geodermatophilus aquaeductus sp. nov., isolated from the ruins of Hadrian’s aqueduct

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Abstract

An orange-black, Gram-positive, aerobic and gamma-ray resistant actinobacterium was isolated from the ruins of a Roman aqueduct located in Northern Tunisia. The optimal growth for the strain was found to be at 25–35 °C and at pH 6.0–9.5. Chemotaxonomic and molecular characteristics of the isolate matched those described for members of the genus Geodermatophilus. The peptidoglycan was found to contain meso-diaminopimelic acid as diagnostic diaminoacid. The main polar lipids were identified as phosphatidylcholine, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylethanolamine, an unidentified glycolipid and an unidentified aminophospholipid; MK-9(H4) was found to be the dominant menaquinone and galactose was detected as the diagnostic sugar, with glucose, ribose and mannose also present. The major cellular fatty acids were identified as branched-chain saturated acids iso-C16:0, iso-C15:0 and iso-H-C16:0. The 16S rRNA gene showed 95.4–99.6 % sequence identity with the type strains of the genus Geodermatophilus. DNA–DNA relatedness values with closely related species were 39.9 ± 4.9, 33.9 ± 1.9, 27.0 ± 2.5 and 13.2 ± 1.35 % with Geodermatophilus amargosae, G. normandii, G. saharensis and G. tzadiensis respectively. Based on phenotypic results and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain BMG801T (=DSM 46834T = CECT 8822T) is proposed to represent the type strain of a novel species, Geodermatophilus aquaeductus sp. nov.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by The Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique, Tunisia (LR03ES03). Chemotaxonomic work was done at the DSMZ (German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures) Braunschweig.

Conflict of interest

Authors disclose that there are no conflicts of interest. No research involving human participants and/or animals was performed. No non-financial interests tied directly or indirectly to this research exist that may be important to readers to be disclosed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Microorganismes et Biomolécules Actives, Université de Tunis El Manar (FST) & Université de Carthage (INSAT), 2092, Tunis, Tunisia

    Karima Hezbri, Faten Ghodhbane-Gtari & Maher Gtari

  2. Leibniz Institute DSMZ – German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Inhoffenstraße 7B, 38124, Braunschweig, Germany

    Maria del Carmen Montero-Calasanz, Cathrin Spröer, Peter Schumann & Hans-Peter Klenk

  3. Centre National des Sciences et Technologies Nucléaires, Pôle Technologique, BP 72, 2020, Sidi Thabet, Tunisia

    Haïtham Sghaier

  4. Central Facility for Microscopy, HZI – Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Inhoffenstraße 7, 38124, Braunschweig, Germany

    Manfred Rohde

  5. School of Biology, Newcastle University, Ridley Building, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK

    Hans-Peter Klenk

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  1. Karima Hezbri
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Correspondence to Maher Gtari.

Electronic supplementary material

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10482_2015_461_MOESM1_ESM.ppt

Supplementary Fig. S1. The parameter “Maximum Height” estimated from the respiration curves as measured with the OmniLog phenotyping device and discretized and visualized as heatmap using the opm package. Plates and substrates are rearranged according to their overall similarity (as depicted using the row and column dendrograms). Ochre colour indicates positive reaction; purple colour indicates negative reaction; white colour indicates ambiguous reaction. Letters (A/B) indicate each replicate of experiment. Supplementary material 1 (PPT 160 kb)

10482_2015_461_MOESM2_ESM.ppt

Supplementary Fig. S2. Polar lipids profile of strain BMG801T resolved by two-dimensional TLC and revealed by spraying plate with molydatophosphoric acid. DPG diphosphadidylglycerol, PE phosphatidethanolamine, PC phosphatidylcholine, PI phosphatidylinositol, GL unidentified glycolipid, APL unidentified aminophospholipid. Supplementary material 2 (PPT 285 kb)

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Hezbri, K., Ghodhbane-Gtari, F., del Carmen Montero-Calasanz, M. et al. Geodermatophilus aquaeductus sp. nov., isolated from the ruins of Hadrian’s aqueduct. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 108, 41–50 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-015-0461-z

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