The family Chitinophagaceae, belonging to the Chitinophagales order within the Bacteroidota phylum, was initially proposed by Kämpfer et al. in 2011 (Kämpfer et al., 2011). Species within the Chitinophagaceae family exhibit a wide distribution across diverse environments, including those contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals (Guo et al., 2020, Li et al., 2021, Pan et al., 2021), rhizosphere soil (Yao et al., 2020), hot springs (Hanada et al., 2014), marine environments (Lee and Cha, 2016, Lee et al., 2016), and freshwater ecosystems (Tan et al., 2014). The characteristics of Chitinophagaceae species include Gram-negative staining, rod-shaped morphology, and an aerobic or facultatively anaerobic nature. The predominant cellular fatty acids identified in these species are iso-C15:0, iso-C17:0 3-OH, and iso-C15:1 G (Kämpfer et al., 2011). As of the current writing, the family Chitinophagaceae encompasses 51 valid and accurately named genera, including Terrimonas and Paraflavitalea (https://lpsn.dsmz.de/family/Chitinophagaceae).

The genus Terrimonas, with T. ferruginea as the type species, was introduced by Xie and Yokota in 2006 (Xie and Yokota, 2006). As of the current writing, the genus Terrimonas comprises 10 published and validly nominated species (https://lpsn.dsmz.de/genus/Terrimonas). The major cellular fatty acids include summed feature 3 (C16:1ω7c/C16:1ω6c), in addition to the three common components (iso-C15:0, iso-C17:0 3-OH, and iso-C15:1 G) characteristic of the family Chitinophagaceae (Jiang et al., 2014). Members of the Terrimonas genus exhibit DNA G + C contents ranging from 41.0 to 48.9 mol% (Jin et al., 2013). While their growth is generally inhibited by >1.0 % NaCl, Terrimonas rubra M-8T and Terrimonas soli FL-8T have been observed to thrive in the presence of 2 % NaCl (Zhang et al., 2012, Jiang et al., 2018). The genus Paraflavitalea encompasses only two species, Paraflavitalea soli and Paraflavitalea devenefica (https://lpsn.dsmz.de/genus/Paraflavitalea), with both of their type strains isolated from soil (Hou et al., 2021, Heo et al., 2020). The major cellular fatty acids in Paraflavitalea species align with those described for the family Chitinophagaceae. The DNA G + C content is approximately 47.5 mol%.

In a previous investigation, we delved into the microbial diversity of polluted sites of a steelworks and an electronic waste (e-waste) dismantling plant, and found that bacterial taxa responded differently to PAHs and heavy metals (Yang et al., 2022). This communication details the isolation, genotypic, and phenotypic characterization of four bacterial strains, H1YJ31T, H1-2-19XT, JS81T, and JY13-12T, isolated from these two polluted sites. Through polyphasic taxonomic methods, we identified and classified these strains as four novel species, belonging to the genera Terrimonas, Paraflavitalea, and newly proposed genera within the family Chitinophagaceae.