International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology (1 999), 49,449-457 Printed in Great Britain Roseateles depolymerans gen. nov., sp. nov., a new bacteriochlorophyll a-containing obligate aerobe belonging to the P=subclassof the Pro teobacteria Tetsushi Suyama,’ Toru Shigematsu,’ Shinichi Takaichit2 Yoshinobu Nodasakaf3Seizo F~jikawa,~Hiroyuki Hosoya,’ Yutaka Tokiwa,’ Takahiro Kanagawa’ and Satoshi Hanadal Author for correspondence : Tetsushi Suyama. Tel : + 8 1 298 54 659 1. Fax : + 8 1 298 54 6587. e-mail:
[email protected] ~~ 1 National Institute of Strains 61AT(T = type strain) and 6IB2, the first bacteriochlorophyll (BChI) a- Bioscience and Human containing obligate aerobes to be classified in the /?-subclassof the Technology, 1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, lbaraki Profeobacteria, were isolated from river water. The strains were originally 305-8566,Japan isolated as degraders of poly(hexamethy1ene carbonate) (PHC). The organisms * Biological Laboratory, can utilize PHC and some other biodegradable plastics. The strains grow only Nippon Medical School, under aerobic conditions. Good production of BChl a and carotenoid pigments Kawasaki 21 1-0063,Japan is achieved on PHC agar plates and an equivalent production is observed under 3.4 School of Dentistry3 and oligotrophic conditions on agar medium. Spectrometric results suggest that Institute of Low BChl a is present in light-harvesting complex I and the photochemical reaction Temperature Science4, Hokkaido University, centre. The main carotenoids are spirilloxanthin and its precursors. Analysis of Sapporo 060, Japan the 165 rRNA gene sequence indicated that the phylogenetic positions of the two strains are similar to each other and that their closest relatives are the genera Rubriwiwax, ldeonella and Leptothrix with similarities of 96.3, 962 and 96-1%, respectively.