Arthrobacter nitrophenolicus sp. nov. a new 2-chloro-4-nitrophenol degrading bacterium isolated from contaminated soil

Strain SJConT, a 2-chloro-4-nitrophenol (2C4NP) degrading bacterium, was isolated from soil collected from a pesticide-contaminated site in Punjab, India. The strain, which stained Gram positive, displayed a rod-coccus life cycle, and possessed a type A3α peptidoglycan (l-Lys–l-Ala3), MK-9(H2) as the major menaquinone, anteiso-C15 and iso-C15:0 as the major cellular fatty acids, and diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol and a glycolipid as the major polar lipids, showed morphological and chemotaxonomic properties consistent with those reported for members of the genus Arthrobacter. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain SJConT confirmed that it was a member of this genus with Arthrobacter globiformis DSM 20124T being the closest relative (sequence similarity of 97 %). The DNA G + C content of strain SJConT was 69 ± 1 mol% and DNA homology with A. globiformis DSM 20124T was 45 %, suggesting that strain SJConT represented a novel species of the genus Arthrobacter, which we have named Arthrobacter nitrophenolicus sp. nov The type strain is SJConT (=MTCC 10104T =DSM 23165T).