Isolation of bacteria of the genus Paenibacillus from soil and springs of the Valley of Geysers (Kamchatka)

Strains of rod-shaped, facultatively anaerobic, spore-forming bacteria exhibiting negative Gram reaction were revealed after inoculation of soil, water, and silt samples from springs of the Valley of Geysers (Kamchatka) onto complete media at pH 5.0, 7,0, and 9.0 and cultivation at 28–30°C. The bacterial isolates differed in their phenotypic characteristics and in the G + C content of genomic DNA, which ranged from 41.1 to 53 mol %. The analysis of 16S rRNA gene nucleotide sequences of all isolated strains (GenBank EU497635-EU497641) revealed their close homologues among the known species of the genus Paenibacillus . At the same time, all the studied bacilli (Dg-824, Dg-904, Dg-1009, Gi-662, Gi-724, K-58, etc.) differed significantly from the nearest phylogenetic neighbors in their phenotypic characteristics, including the Gram reaction, the DNA G + C content, and a number of other determinative characteristics; therefore, they could not be assigned to previously known species.