Phenylobacterium hankyongense sp nov., isolated from ginseng field soil

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile, non-spore-forming and rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated HKS-05(T), was isolated from ginseng field soil. This bacterium was characterized to determine its taxonomic position by using the polyphasic approach. HKS-05(T) grew at 10-37 degrees C and at pH 6.0-8.0 on R2A agar. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, HKS-05(T) was shown to represent a member of the family Caulobacteraceae and to be related to Phenylobacterium lituiforme FaiI3(T) (98.1% sequence similarity), 'Phenylobacterium zucineum' HLK1 (97.9 %), Phenylobacterium muchangponense A8(T) (97.7 %), Phenylobacterium composti 4T-6(T) (97.2 %) and Phenylobacterium immobile E-T (97.1 %). The major respiratory quinone was Q-10 and the major fatty acids were summed feature 8 (comprising C-18:1 omega 7c and/or C-18:1 omega 6c), C-16:0, and summed feature 3 (comprising C-16:1 omega 7c and/or C-16:1 omega 6c). The polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol, unidentified glycolipids and unidentified polar lipids. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 70.4 mol%. DNA-DNA relatedness values between HKS-05(T) and its closest phylogenetically neighbours were low. HKS-05(T) could be differentiated genotypically and phenotypically from the species of the genus Phenylobacterium with validly published names. The isolate therefore represents a novel species, for which the name Phenylobacterium hankyongense sp. nov. is proposed, with the type strain HKS-05(T) (=KACC 18628(T) = LMG 30081(T))