A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, yellow-pigmented, oxidase-positive and rod-shaped bacterium, designated PRB40T, was isolated from the Godavari River in India during the course of 'Kumbh Mela', the world's largest mass gathering event. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain PRB40T formed a lineage within the family Sphingomonadaceae and was distinct from the most closely related genera Sphingorhabdus, Novosphingobiumand Sphingomonas with sequence similarity values ≤95.2 %. Growth of strain PRB40T occurred at 10-40 °C (optimum 30 °C), at pH 6.0-9.0 (pH 7.0) and with 0-0.5 % (w/v) NaCl concentration (0 %). The major respiratory quinone was ubiquinone-10 (Q-10). It contained C17 : 1ω6c, C14 : 0 2-OH, summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c) and summed feature 8 (C18 : 1ω7c and/or C18 : 1ω6c) as the major cellular fatty acids. The predominant polar lipids were phospholipid, phosphatidylethanolamine and sphingoglycolipid. It took sym-homospermidine as the major polyamine. The DNA G+C content based on its draft genome sequence was 63.7 mol%. The polyphasic taxonomic analyses indicated that strain PRB40T represents a novel species of a novel genus within the family Sphingomonadaceae, for which the name Chakrabartia godavariana gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Chakrabartia godavariana is PRB40T (=MCC 3406T=GDMCC 1.1197T=KCTC 52678T=LMG 29985T).
Keywords: 16S rRNA gene; FAME; Godavari river; mass bathing; phospholipid; sym-homospermidine.