Alkalimonas Mucilaginosa Sp. Nov. and Alkalimonas Cellulosilytica Sp. Nov. Isolated from Alkaline Lonar Lake, India

Two alkaliphilic, Gram-stain-negative bacterial strains (MEB004 and MEB108) were isolated from water samples collected from Lonar lake, India. The phylogenetic analysis of their 16S rRNA gene sequences showed the highest similarity to A. delamerensis DSM 18314 (98.4%), followed by A. amylolytica DSM 18337 and A. collagenimarina JCM 14267 (97.9%). The genome sizes of strains MEB004 and MEB108 were determined to be 3,858,702 and 4,029,814 bp, respectively, with genomic DNA G + C contents of 51.4 and 51.9%. Average Nucleotide Identity, DNA-DNA Hybridization and Amino Acid Identity values between strains (MEB004 and MEB108) and A. amylolytica DSM 18337 were (82.3 and 85.5), (25.0 and 29.2) and (86.7 and 90.2%). Both novel strains produced industrially important enzymes, such as amylase, lipase, cellulase, caseinase, and chitinase at pH 10 evidenced by the genomic presence of carbohydrate-active enzymes encoding genes. Genomic analyses further identified pH tolerance genes, affirming their adaptation to alkaline Lonar Lake. Dominant fatty acids were Summed feature 8 (C ω7c and/or C ω6c), C Summed feature 3, Sum In Feature 2 and C 3OH. The prevalent polar lipids included phosphatidyl ethanolamine, phosphatidyl glycerol, and diphosphatidyl glycerol. The major respiratory quinone was ubiquinone-8. Based on the polyphasic data, we propose the classification of strains MEB004 and MEB108 as novel species within the genus Alkalimonas assigning the names Alkalimonas mucilaginosa sp. nov. and Alkalimonas cellulosilytica sp. nov., respectively. The type strains are MEB004 (= MCC 5208 = JCM 35954 = NCIMB 15460) and MEB108 (= MCC 5330 = JCM 35955 = NCIMB 15461).