A taxonomic study of two crude-oil-degrading, Gram-positive bacterial strains, designated
BAS69T and BNP48T
, revealed that they represent two novel Microbacterium species. 16S
rRNA gene sequence similarity to their closest phylogenetic neighbours was 98?5 % for BAS69T
(Microbacterium paraoxydans DSM 15019T and Microbacterium saperdae DSM 20169T
) and
99 % for BNP48T (Microbacterium luteolum DSM 20143T
). Levels of DNA–DNA relatedness to
the closest phylogenetic neighbours of both strains were between 11 and 38 %. According to
phylogenetic analysis, the two strains are distinguishable from all recognized species of
Microbacterium. Morphological and physiological characteristics of strains BAS69T and
BNP48T were different from those of phylogenetically closely related Microbacterium species.
The diamino acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan of BAS69T is lysine and of BNP48T is ornithine.
The major menaquinones are MK-11 and MK-12 for both strains. Based on their ability to
degrade crude oil, the name Microbacterium oleivorans sp. nov. is proposed for strain BAS69T
(=DSM 16091T
=NCIMB 14003T
) and Microbacterium hydrocarbonoxydans is proposed for
strain BNP48T (=DSM 16089T
=NCIMB 14002T
).