Arthrobacter vasquezii sp. nov., isolated from a soil sample from Union Glacier, Antarctica

A Gram-stain-positive, catalase-positive, non-motile bacteria, with a rod–coccus cycle (designated as EH-1B-1 T ) was isolated from a soil sample from Union Glacier in Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica. Strain EH-1B-1 T had an optimal growth temperature of 28 °C and grew at pH 7–10. The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C 15 : 0 , iso-C 15 : 0 , C 16 : 0 and anteiso-C 17 : 0 . The G+C content based on the whole genome sequence was 63.1 mol%. Strain EH-1B-1 T was most closely related to members of the genus Arthrobacter , namely Arthrobacter subterraneus and Arthrobacter tumbae . The strain grew on tryptic soy agar, Reasoner’s 2A agar, lysogeny broth agar and nutrient agar. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA–DNA hybridization values between strain EH-1B-1 T and its closest reference type strains ranged from 78 to 88 % and from 20.9 to 36.3 %, respectively. Based on phenotypic, chemotypic and genotypic evidence, it is proposed that strain EH-1B-1 T represents a novel species of Arthrobacter , for which the name Arthrobacter vasquezii sp. nov. is proposed, with strain EH-1B-1 T (RGM 3386 T =LMG 32961 T ) as the type strain.