Noviherbaspirillum denitrificans sp. nov., a denitrifying bacterium isolated from rice paddy soil and Noviherbaspirillum autotrophicum sp. nov., a denitrifying, facultatively autotrophic bacterium isolated from rice paddy soil and proposal to reclassify Herbaspirillum massiliense as Noviherbaspirillum massiliense comb. nov.

Thirty-nine denitrifying bacterial strains closely related to one another, represented by strains TSA40T and TSA66T, were isolated from rice paddy soils. Strains TSA40T and TSA66T were Gram-stain-negative, slightly curved rod-shaped, and motile by means of polar flagella. They were able to reduce nitrate, nitrite and nitrous oxide, but unable to fix atmospheric N2. While strain TSA66T was able to grow autotrophically by H2-dependent denitrification, strain TSA40T could not. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that they belong to the family Oxalobacteraceae, the order Burkholderiales in the class Betaproteobacteria. Major components in the fatty acids (C16 : 0, C17 : 0 cyclo, C18 : 1ω7c and summed feature 3) and quinone (Q-8) also supported the affiliation of strains TSA40T and TSA66T to the family Oxalobacteraceae. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons, strains TSA40T and TSA66T showed the greatest degree of similarity to Herbaspirillum massiliense JC206T, Noviherbaspirillum malthae CC-AFH3T, Noviherbaspirillum humi U15T, Herbaspirillum seropedicae Z67T and Paucimonas lemoignei LMG 2207T, and lower similarities to the members of other genera. Average nucleotide identity values between the genomes of strain TSA40T, TSA66T and H. massiliense JC206T were 75-77 %, which was lower than the threshold value for species discrimination (95-96 %). Based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis in combination with physiological, chemotaxonomic and genomic properties, strains TSA40T (=JCM 17722T=ATCC TSD-69T) and TSA66T (=JCM 17723T=DSM 25787T) are the type strains of two novel species within the genus Noviherbaspirillum, for which the names Noviherbaspirillum denitrificans sp. nov. and Noviherbaspirillum autotrophicum sp. nov. are proposed, respectively. We also propose the reclassification of Herbaspirillum massiliense as Noviherbaspirillum massiliense comb. nov.