Research

A wide variety of microorganisms are living in nature, but most of them are unculturable and have not been clarified yet. Chitin is a polysaccharide contained in crab or shrimp shells. Bacterial cells adsorbed on the surface of flake chitin placed in river, moat, or soil were mixed and cultivated in chitin medium. As a result, a stable bacterial community with a strong chitinolytic activity was constructed. The community was composed of four different bacterial species, which were supposed to be mutually dependent on degradation of chitin. One species originated from moat water of Ueda castle was identified as a novel species belonging to a novel genus belonging to the family Neisseriaceae. The strain was named Chitiniphilus shinanonensis gen. nov., sp. nov.

Sato et al. ,J. Gen. Appl. Microbiol. 55,147-153 (2009)