Methylobacterium ajmalii, Bijlani & Singh & Eedara & Podile & Mason & Wang & Venkateswaran, 2021

Bijlani, Swati, Singh, Nitin K., Eedara, V. V. Ramprasad, Podile, Appa Rao, Mason, Christopher E., Wang, Clay C. C. & Venkateswaran, Kasthuri, 2021, Methylobacterium ajmalii sp. nov., Isolated From the International Space Station, Frontiers in Microbiology 12, No. 639396, pp. 1-14 : 12

Description of Methylobacterium ajmalii sp. nov.

Methylobacterium ajmalii (aj.ma’li.i. N.L. gen. n. ajmalii named after Ajmal Khan, a renowned Indian scientist on biodiversity). Cells are Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, and motile rods showing oxidase- and catalase-positive reactions. Cells are 1.6–1.8 µm wide and 2.2–3.2 µm long. Colonies on R2A agar are reddish pink–pigmented, circular, convex, and smooth, with a diameter of approximately 0.6–1.0 mm after 3 days of incubation on R2A agar. Growth occurs at 25–30 ◦ C (optimum, 30 ◦ C), at pH 6.0–8.0 (optimum, pH 7.0) and in the presence of 0–1.0% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0%). In API ZYM tests, the strain is positive for Alkaline phosphatase, Esterase (C4), Esterase lipase (C8), Leucine arylamidase, Trypsin, Acid phosphatase, and Naphthol-AS-BI-phosphohydrolase, but negative for other enzyme activities. Cells utilize Adipic acid, D- glucose, D- maltose, D- mannitol, D- mannose, L-arabinose, Malic acid, N-acetylglucosamine, Potassium gluconate, and Trisodium citrate for growth, but not other substrates in API 20NE. Cells are capable of weakly fermenting inulin and D- melezitose as observed in API 50 CH. Ubiquinone Q-10 is the predominant respiratory isoprenoid quinone. The major fatty acid is summed feature 8 (comprising C18:1 ω7 c and/or C18:1 ω6 c). The major polar lipids are diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, and phosphatidylglycerol. The genomic DNA G + Ccontent of the type strain is 71.07 mol%.

*Total protein coding genes as per annotated genome.

The type strain IF7SW-B2 T is isolated from the International Space Station.