Syed G. Dastager, 1 Q. S. Raziuddin,2 C. K. Deepa,1 Wen-Jun Li3 and Ashok Pandey1

A Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterial strain, NII-0905 T, that was motile by gliding was isolated from soil of a dense forest collected from the Western Ghats of India and its taxonomic position was established. Strain NII-0905T contained MK-7 as the major menaquinone and anteiso-C17 : 0, anteiso-C15 : 0, iso-C16 : 0 and iso-C15 : 0 as the major cellular fatty acids. The DNA G+C content of strain NII-0905 T was 51.47 mol%. 16S rRNA gene sequence-based phylogenetic analysis confirmed the placement of strain NII-0905T in the genus Pontibacter and strain NII-0905T exhibited 93.9–96.3 % 16S rRNA sequence similarity with type strains of species of the genus Pontibacter. On the basis of genotypic and phenotypic evidence, strain
NII-0905T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Pontibacter, for which the name Pontibacter niistensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NII-0905T (5NCIM 5339T5CCTCC AA 209057T).