Sphingobacterium chuzhouense sp nov., isolated from farmland soil

A novel Gram-staining-negative bacterium, designated DH-5(T), was isolated from a farmland soil in Chuzhou, Anhui province, China. Cells of strain DH-5(T) were aerobic, non-motile, non-spore forming and rod-shaped. The organism grew at 20-37 degrees C, pH 6.0-9.0 and with 0-5% NaCl (w/v). The DNA G+C content was 42.8 mol%. The major fatty acids (>5%) were iso-C-15:0, summed feature 3 (C-16:1 omega 7c and/or C-16:1 omega 6C), iSO-C-17 :0 3-OH and C-16:0. The respiratory quinone was MK-7, and the major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphoglycolipid. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain DH-5T was a member of the genus Sphingobacterium and shared the highest similarity with Sphingobacterium gobiense H7(T) (96.0 %), followed by Sphingobacterium arenae H-12(T) (94.5%). Strain DH-5(T) exhibited low DNA-DNA relatedness with S. gobiense H7(T) (35.1 1.4%) and S. arenae H-12(T) (21.4 1.0%). On the basis of phenotypic, genotypic and phylogenetic evidence, DH-5(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Sphingobacterium, for which the name Sphingobacterium chuzhouense sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is DH-5(T) (=ACCC 19856(T)=KCTC 42746(T)).