Olivibacter flavus sp. nov., a novel endophytic bacterium isolated from the root of Camellia sinensis

A novel Gram-negative rod, endophytic bacterium, designated strain TMCC 8258T, was isolated from the root of Camellia sinensis collected from Puer, south-west China. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that the strain belongs to the family Sphingobacteriaceae and a neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree suggested that strain TMCC 8258T formed a cluster with the type strain of Olivibacter ginsengisoli (showed the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 95.8%). Chemotaxonomic data [major fatty acid iso-C15:0, summed feature 3 (C16:1ω7c and/or C16:1ω6c), iso-C17:0 3-OH and major respiratory quinone MK-7] confirmed the affiliation of strain TMCC 8258T to the genus Olivibacter. The G + C content was 39.1 mol %. The results of the phylogenetic analysis, together with the physiological, morphological and biochemical tests, suggested that strain TMCC 8258T should be classified as representing a novel species of the genus Olivibacter, for which the name Olivibacter flavus is proposed. The type strain is TMCC 8258T (=CGMCC 1.16141 = KCTC 42683).