Taxonomic study
The cultural and physiological characteristics of strain 530603 are
summarized in Table 1. Strain No. 530603 was a Gram-positive motile
bacterium and had a temperature range for growth of 10–45 1C, with
an optimum between 30–35 1C. Strain 530603 gave positive results for
oxidase and catalase, and acid production from glucose and arabinose.
Colonies on Luria-Bertani (LB) agar medium grew rapidly and
were translucent, mucous and convex with a diameter of B7 mm
after 3 days of culture. Microscopic observation showed rod-shaped,
single or short chains of cells (0.5–0.8 2.5–15 mm). Oval endospores
(0.5–1.2 1.5–2.5 mm) were located terminally within swollen
sporulating cells. The 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequence of strain
530603 determined in this study was almost complete, comprising
1502 nucleotides (nt) and having 499% similarity with those of
Paenibacillus species. Th