Pedobacter kyonggii sp nov., a psychrotolerant bacterium isolated from forest soil

Strain K-4-11-1 (T), a psychrotolerant, light salmon-coloured, Gram-stain-negative, non-motile and rod-shaped bacterium, was isolated from forest soil of Kyonggi University, Suwon, South Korea. It was able to grow at 0-32 degrees C, at pH 5.0-10.0 and with 0-1.5% (w/v) NaCl. This strain was taxonomically characterized by a polyphasic approach. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain K-4-11-1 (T) belongs to the genus Pedobacter and is closely related to Pedobacter ginsenosidimutans THG-45 (T) (98.75% sequence similarity), Pedobacter borealis G-1 (T) (98.48 %), Pedobacter terrae DS-57 T (98.20 %), Pedobacter agri PB92 (T) (97.92 %) and Pedobacter suwonensis 15-52 (T) (97.84 %). The only respiratory quinone was menaquinone-7. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine and unidentified glycolipids. The predominant fatty acids of strain K-4-11-1 (T) were summed feature 3 (C-16 : 1 omega 7c and/or C-16 : 1 omega 6c), iso-C15 : 0, iso-C17 : 0 3-OH, anteiso-C17 : 0 and summed feature 9 (iso-C-17 : 1 omega 9c and/or C16 : 0 10-methyl). The genomic DNA G+ C content of this novel strain was 38.3 mol%. The DNA-DNA relatedness values between strain K-4-11-1 (T) and P. ginsenosidimutans KACC 14530 (T), P. borealis KACC 14287 (T), P. terrae KACC 13766 (T), P. agri KACC 13768 (T) and P. suwonensis KACC 11317 (T) were 40.0, 36.3, 37.0, 32.3 and 29.7 %, respectively. The morphological, physiological, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analyses clearly distinguished this novel strain from its closest phylogenetic neighbours. Thus, strain K-4-11-1 (T) represents a novel species of the genus Pedobacter, for which the name Pedobacter kyonggii sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is K-4-11-1 (T) (= KEMB 9005-574 T = KACC 19174 (T) = JCM 31916 (T)).