A Gram-stain-positive, rod-shaped, strictly aerobic, endospore-forming and motile bacterium with peritrichous flagella was isolated from a gut sample of the larva of Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis at the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Wanju-gun, Republic of Korea. Growth was observed at 15-50 °C (optimum, 28-37 °C), pH 6.0-8.0 (pH 7.0) and only without NaCl. 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons indicated that strain FW100M-2T had the highest similarity to type strains of Paenibacillus thailandensis S3-4AT (96.8 %) and Paenibacillus agaridevorans DSM 1355T (96.3 %), and had sequence similarity values less than 96.0 % to all other taxa. The phylogenetic tree showed that strain FW100M-2T fell into the genus Paenibacillus, and formed a cluster with P. thailandensis S3-4AT independent from other Paenibacillus species. Antesio-C15 : 0, iso-C16 : 0 and anteiso-C17 : 0 were detected as the major fatty acids. The only isoprenoid quinone was MK-7. Polar lipids of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, an unidentified aminophospholipid, two unidentified phospholipids and an unidentified lipid were present. The meso-diaminopimelic acid was present in the cell-wall peptidoglycan. The genomic DNA G+C content was 51.5 mol%. Hence, strain FW100M-2T represents a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus protaetiae sp. nov. is proposed, with FW100M-2T (=KACC 19327T=NBRC 113071T) as the type strain.
Keywords: Paenibacillus protaetiae; Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis; gut; isoprenoid quinone; polar lipid.