Sphingomonas soli sp. nov., a β-glucosidase-producing bacterium in the family Sphingomonadaceae in the α-4 subgroup of the Proteobacteria

Abstract

Strain T5-04T, a Gram-negative, non-spore-forming, rod-shaped bacterium, was isolated from soil of a ginseng field in South Korea and characterized in order to determine its taxonomic position. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that strain T5-04T belongs to the alpha-4 subgroup of the Proteobacteria, and the highest degrees of sequence similarity determined were to Sphingomonas asaccharolytica IFO 10564T (97.5 %), Sphingomonas koreensis JSS26T (97.1 %), Sphingomonas mali IFO 15500T (96.7 %) and Sphingomonas pruni IFO 15498(T) (96.6 %). Chemotaxonomic data revealed that strain T5-04T possesses ubiquinone Q-10 predominantly, C(18 : 1) as the predominant fatty acid and sphingoglycolipids, all of which corroborate its assignment to the genus Sphingomonas. The results of DNA-DNA hybridization and physiological and biochemical tests clearly demonstrated that strain T5-04T represents a distinct species. Based on polyphasic evidence, T5-04T (=KCTC 12210T = NBRC 100801T = IAM 15213T) should be classified as the type strain of a novel Sphingomonas species, for which the name Sphingomonas soli sp. nov. is proposed.