Pedobacter lycopersici sp. nov., isolated from the rhizosphere of tomato plant (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

A Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped, white bacterium, designated strain T16R-88T, was isolated from a rhizosphere soil sample collected in Buyeo-gun of Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea. A phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain T16R-88T formed a lineage within the genus Pedobacter. It showed highest sequence similarities to Pedobacter ginsengisoli Gsoil 104T (97.4 %), Pedobacter nutrimenti J22T (97.2 %), Pedobacter nyackensis NWG-II14T (97.1 %), Pedobacter seoulensis THG-G12T (97.1 %) and Pedobacter panaciterrae Gsoil 042T (97.0 %). The predominant respiratory quinone was menaquinone MK-7. The major cellular fatty acids (>10 % of the total fatty acids) were summed feature 3 (iso-C15 : 0 2-OH and/or C16 : 1ω7c), iso-C17 : 0 3-OH and iso-C15 : 0. The polar lipids consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, sphingolipid, one unidentified aminophospholipid, three unidentified aminolipids, three unidentified lipids and one unidentified phospholipid. DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain T16R-88T and its most closely related species were below 70 %. The DNA G+C content was 35.6 mol%. On the basis of the evidence presented in this study, strain T16R-88T represents a novel species of the genus Pedobacter, for which the name Pedobacter lycopersici sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is T16R-88T (=KACC 18652T=NBRC 111984T).