Abstract
Strain MWH-Weng1-1T, isolated from an acidic freshwater habitat located in the Wenger Moor, Austria, was characterized by investigating its phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and genomic traits. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing placed the strain in the cryptic species complex PnecC within the genus Polynucleobacter. The strain had a genome of 2.04 Mbp with a G+C content of 45.6 mol%. The major fatty acids of the strain were C16 : 1ω7c, C16 : 0 and C18 : 1ω7c. In order to resolve the systematic position of the strain within the species complex PnecC, concatenated partial sequences of eight housekeeping genes were used for phylogenetic analyses. The obtained trees did not place strain MWH-Weng1-1T close to any of the six previously described species within this cryptic species complex. Pairwise whole genome average nucleotide identity comparisons with genome sequences of strains representing the six previously described species of the subcluster resulted throughout in values <78 %, which clearly suggested that strain MWH-Weng1-1T (DSM 24018T=CIP 111099T) represents a novel species. We propose the name Polynucleobacter sphagniphilus sp. nov. and strain MWH-Weng1-1T as the type strain for this new species.