Leucobacter faecis sp. nov., a Novel Actinomycete Isolated from Bat Feces of Rousettus and Hipposideros spp.

Two novel Gram-stain-positive, non-spore-forming, strictly aerobic, regular rod-shaped bacteria (HY1910T and HY1908) were isolated from bat feces collected from Changshou District of Chongqing City (Altitude: 490 m; N: 30° 02' 15″, E: 107° 07' 4″, September 2011) and Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan province (Altitude: 1795 m; N: 25°09'10″, E: 102°04'39″, October 2013), respectively. Optimal growth is obtained at 28-30 °C (range, 10-37 °C) on BHI-5% sheep blood plate with pH 7.5 (range, 5.0-10.0) in the presence of 0.5-1.0% NaCl (w/v) [range, 0-5% NaCl (w/v)]. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene and 458 core genes indicated that strains HY1908 and HY1910T belong to genus Leucobacter, forming a clade with L. salsicius M1-8T (98.6% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity) and L. exalbidus K-540BT (98.3%). The digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH), average amino acid identity (AAI) and average nucleotide identity (ANI) values of type strain HY1910T with its closest related species were 19.5%-23.5% (dDDH), 58.1%-83.1% (AAI) and 69.4%-80.2% (ANI), falling below the recommended thresholds for species delimitation. In contrast, the dDDH and ANI values between strains HY1908 and HY1910T are 84.0% and 98.1%, respectively, well above the species threshold and suggesting that they belong to the same species. The major fatty acids (> 10.0%) of strain HY1910T were anteiso-C15:0, iso-C16:0 and anteiso-C17:0. Polar lipids included diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and two unidentified lipids. Menaquinone 11 (MK-11) was the major respiratory quinone. Based on the combined phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic, and phenotypic evidence, the two strains could be classified as a novel species within the genus Leucobacter, for which the name Leucobacter faecis sp. nov. is proposed (type strain HY1910T=CGMCC 1.19166T=JCM 34880T).