Stenotrophomonas chelatiphaga sp. nov., a new aerobic EDTA-degrading bacterium

A new ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA)-utilizing gammaproteobacterial strain LPM-5T was isolated from municipal sewage sludge. Aerobic, gram-negative, motile rods multiply by binary fission. Neutrophilic and mesophilic, these are unable to grow in the presence of 3% NaCl (w/v), and unable to reduce nitrate to nitrite, and are oxidase and catalase positive, but lipase negative. The major cellular fatty acids are Ci15:0, Ca15:0 and C16:1w7c. The dominant phospholipids are phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglycerol (cardiolipin). The DNA G+C content is 68.3 mol% (Tm). The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed a high similarity of strain LPM-5T to the species members of genus Stenotrophomonas: S. maltophilia LMG 958T (98.6%), S. rhizophila CCUG 47042T (98.3%), S. koreensis TR6-01T (97.6%) and S. acidaminiphila CIP 106456T (97.0%). Based on these results and modest DNA–DNA hybridization levels with S. maltophilia VKM B-591T (=LMG 958T) (51%) and S. rhizophila CCUG 47042T (52%), the isolate was classified as a novel species, Stenotrophomonas chelatiphaga sp. nov. (type strain LPM-5T=VKM B-2486=DSM-21508=CCUG 57178).