Acinetobacter harbinensis sp. nov., isolated from river water

A bacterial strain, HITLi 7^T, with nitrifying ability was isolated from the surface water of the Songhua River in China. Cells were Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic, oxidase-negative, nonmotile coccobacilli, capable of growth in mineral media with acetate as the sole carbon source and ammonia as the sole source of nitrogen. The cells did not grow at 37 °C, but did grow at 2 °C. The DNA G+C content was 45.5 mol%. Results of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated a close relationship between this isolate and Acinetobacter lwoffii (98.4% similarity for strain DSM 2403^T). rpoB and gyrB gene sequences did not show significant similarity with those from other species of the genus Acinetobacter. Predominant cellular fatty acids were 9- octadecenoic acid (C_{18: 1}ω9c) and summed feature 4 (iso-C_{15: 0} 2-OH and/or C_{16: 1}ω7c). Acid was not produced from D-glucose, and gelatin was not hydrolysed by the isolate. Genotypic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic data from this study indicate that the isolate should be classified as a representative of a novel species of the genus Acinetobacter. The name Acinetobacter harbinensis sp. nov. is proposed for the novel species, with HITLi 7^T (=CGMCC 1.12528^T=KCTC 32411^T) as the type strain.