Pedobacter humi sp. nov., isolated from a playground soil

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile, rod-shaped and yellow-pigmented bacterium, designated strain THG S15-2T, was isolated from playground soil in Sindorim-dong, Guro-gu, Seoul, South Korea. According to 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons, strain THG S15-2T was found to be related most closely to Pedobacter ginsengisoli Gsoil 104T (97.5 % similarity), Pedobacter panaciterrae Gsoil 042T (97.4 %), Pedobacter seoulensis THG-G12T (97.1 %) and Pedobacter caeni LMG 22862T (97.1 %). The level of DNA-DNA relatedness between strain THG S15-2T and its phylogenetically closest neighbours was below 30.0 %. The only isoprenoid quinone detected in strain THG S15-2T was menaquinone-7. The DNA G+C content was 45.9 mol%. The major polar lipid was phosphatidylethanolamine. The major component in the polyamine pattern was sym-homospermidine. The major fatty acids were identified as summed feature 3 (C16:1ω7c and/or C16:1ω6c), iso-C15:0 and C16:0. These data supported the affiliation of strain THG S15-2T to the genus Pedobacter. Strain THG S15-2T was distinguished from related Pedobacter species by physiological and biochemical tests. Therefore, strain THG S15-2T represents a novel species, for which the name Pedobacter humi sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is THG S15-2T (= KCTC 42735T = CCTCC AB 2015293T).