Paenibacillus chartarius sp. nov., isolated from a paper mill Peter Ka ¨ mpfer, 1 Enevold Falsen, 2 Nicole Lodders, 1 Karin Martin, 3 Johannes Kassmannhuber 4 and Hans-Ju ¨ rgen Busse 4 Correspondence Peter Ka ¨ mpfer peter.kaempfer@umwelt.uni- giessen.de 1 Institut fu ¨ r Angewandte Mikrobiologie, Justus-Liebig-Universita ¨ t Giessen, D-35392 Giessen, Germany 2 Culture Collection, Department of Clinical Bacteriology, Go ¨ teborg University, S-41346 Go ¨ teborg, Sweden 3 Leibniz-Institut fu ¨ r Naturstoff-Forschung und Infektionsbiologie e. V., Hans-Kno ¨ ll-Institut, D-07745 Jena, Germany 4 Institut fu ¨ r Bakteriologie, Mykologie und Hygiene, Veterina ¨ rmedizinische Universita ¨ t, Wien, Austria The taxonomy of strain CCUG 55240 T , a Gram-staining-positive, aerobic, endospore-forming bacterium that was isolated from a paper mill, was investigated using a polyphasic approach. In phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences, the novel strain was grouped with established members of the genus Paenibacillus and appeared most closely related to the type strains of Paenibacillus chinjuensis (93.7 % sequence similarity), P. elgii (93.7 %) and P. chitinolyticus (93.6 %). The levels of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with other species of the genus Paenibacillus, including the type species of the genus, Paenibacillus polymyxa, were all ,93.5 %. The fatty acid profile of strain CCUG 55240 T , which showed a predominance of iso- and anteiso-branched fatty acids, supported the allocation of the strain to the genus Paenibacillus. Unusually high amounts of some iso-branched fatty acids, especially iso-C 15 : 0 and iso-C 16 : 0 , allowed differentiation of strain CCUG 55240 T from the most closely related species of the genus Paenibacillus. The diagnostic diamino acid found in the cell-wall peptidoglycan was meso-diaminopimelic acid. The predominant menaquinone was MK-7. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, an unknown glycolipid, an unknown aminophosphoglycolipid and an unknown phospholipid. Spermidine was the major polyamine. The results of some physiological and biochemical tests also allowed the phenotypic differentiation of strain CCUG 55240 T from the most closely related recognized species. On the basis of the phylogenetic, phenotypic and molecular evidence, strain CCUG 55240 T represents a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus chartarius sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of the novel species is CCUG 55240 T (5CCM 7759 T ). The genus Paenibacillus as proposed by Ash et al. (1993) accommodates bacilli of ‘16S rRNA group 3’, which can be distinguished from other bacilli by several phenotypic characteristics as well as by using a highly specific 16S rRNA gene probe (Ash et al., 1993). At the time of writing, there are more than 100 species of the genus Paenibacillus and they can be found in habitats as varied as warm springs, rice fields, Antarctic sediments and the phyllo- spheres and rhizospheres of trees (Lim et al., 2006). The type species is Paenibacillus polymyxa (Ash et al., 1993). Although cells of the genus are Gram-staining-positive rods, the Gram-staining reaction is often weak. Ellipsoidal endospores are formed and acid can be produced from various sugars (Ash et al., 1993). In 2007, an endospore-forming organism was isolated from an industrial paper mill in Sweden, after incubation of an unspecified sample on blood agar at 37 uC. The organism, subsequently known as strain CCUG 55240 T , was sub- cultured on tryptone soy agar (TSA; Oxoid) at 30 u C for 24 h. Gram staining was performed as described by Abbreviations: AGL, aminoglycolipid; AL, aminolipid; APGL, amino- phosphoglycolipid; DPG, diphosphatidylglycerol; GL, glycolipid; L, polar lipid; PE, phosphatidylethanolamine; PG, phosphatidylglycerol; PL, phospholipid; TSA, tryptone soy agar. The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain CCUG 55240 T is FN689718. A supplementary figure is available with the online version of this paper. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology (2012), 62, 1342–1347 DOI 10.1099/ijs.0.035154-0 1342 035154 G 2012 IUMS Printed in Great Britain