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  • gen. nov., sp. nov. and sp. nov., biodegradable plastic-degrading bacteria belonging to the family , isolated from the coast of Japan. Miura, Takamasa Kasaishi, Rieko Hidaka, Kohei Shimamura, Mamiko Hamada, Moriyuki Miyakawa, Tomoyo Kusuya, Yoko Ishitani, Yoshiyuki Ishii, Shun'ichi Furuno, Yoko Yokoyama, Risa Kato, Dai-Ichiro Arimoto, Asuka Fukuda, Kazuya Ueki, Tatsuya Tagawa, Kunifumi Uchino, Yoshihito Kamino, Kei Phylogeny RNA, Ribosomal, 16S Japan DNA, Bacterial Base Composition Sequence Analysis, DNA Bacterial Typing Techniques Biodegradable Plastics Seawater Fatty Acids Biodegradation, Environmental Polyesters Two Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-spore-forming, rod-shaped bacterial strains, designated 4NK60-0013 and 4NH20-0068, were isolated from biodegradable plastic films immersed in the coastal waters of Japan. These strains showed the ability to degrade biodegradable plastics, poly(butylene succinate--adipate) (PBSA) and poly(-caprolactone). Phylogenetic analyses based on the 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strains 4NK60-0013 and 4NH20-0068 belong to the family in the order and are closely related to members of the genus . The species most closely related to strains 4NK60-0013 and 4NH20-0068 were M5c and YN3, with 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of 94.4 and 93.3%, respectively. The sequence similarity between the two novel strains was 94.8%, indicating that they represented separate species. The genome length and G+C content of the genome sequence of strain 4NK60-0013 were 4,354,061 bp and 46.9 mol%, respectively, whereas those of strain 4NH20-0068 were 4,154,637 bp and 43.3 mol%, respectively. The average nucleotide identity values between the strains were