Description of Polystyrenella longa gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from polystyrene particles incubated in the Baltic Sea.

Abstract

Planctomycetes occur in almost all aquatic ecosystems on earth. They have a remarkable cell biology, and members of the orders Planctomycetales and Pirellulales feature cell division by polar budding, perform a lifestyle switch from sessile to motile cells and have an enlarged periplasmic space. Here, we characterise a novel planctomycetal strain, Pla110T, isolated from the surface of polystyrene particles incubated in the Baltic Sea. After phylogenetic analysis, the strain could be placed in the family Planctomycetaceae. Strain Pla110T performs cell division by budding, has crateriform structures and grows in aggregates or rosettes. The strain is a chemoheterotroph, grows under mesophilic and neutrophilic conditions, and exhibited a doubling time of 21 h. Based on our phylogenetic and morphological characterisation, strain Pla110T (DSM 103387T = LMG 29693T) is concluded to represent a novel species belonging to a novel genus, for which we propose the name Polystyrenella longa gen. nov., sp. nov.