Sphingopyxis solisilvae sp nov., isolated from forest soil

A yellow-coloured, Gram-staining-negative, motile and rod shaped bacterium, designated strain R366(T), was isolated from forest soil of Kyonggi University, South Korea. It was able to grow at 15-42 degrees C, pH 6.0-10.0 and with 0-4% (w/v) NaCl concentration. Based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain R366(T) belongs to the genus Sphingopyxis and is closely related to Sphingopyxis italica SC13E-S71(T) (98.72% sequence similarity), Sphingopyxis chilensis S37(T) (98.51 %), Sphingopyxis fribergensis Kp5.2(T) (98.29 %), Sphingopyxis alaskensis RB2256(T) (98.15 %), Sphingopyxis ginsengisoli Gsoli 250(T) (98.15 %) and Sphingopyxis taejonensis JSS54(T) (98.01 %). The predominant respiratory quinone was ubiquinone-10, and the major polyamine was spermidine. The polar lipid profile revealed the presence of phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine and sphingoglycolipid. The predominant fatty acids of strain R366(T) were summed feature 8 (C-18 : 1 omega 7c and/or C-18 : 1 omega 6c), summed feature 3 (C-16 : 1 omega 7c and/or C-16 : 1 omega 6c), C17 : 1 omega 6c, C-16 : 0, C-18 : 1 omega 7c 11-methyl and C14 : 0 2-OH. The genomic DNA G+C content of this novel strain was 65.1 mol%. The DNA-DNA relatedness between strain R366(T) and Sphingopyxis italica DSM 25229(T), Sphingopyxis chilensis KCCM 41918(T), Sphingopyxis alaskensis KCCM 41983(T), Sphingopyxis ginsengisoli KACC 13918(T) and Sphingopyxis taejonensis KACC 12341(T) was 51.7, 45.3, 39.0, 41.3 and 44.7 %, respectively. The morphological, physiological, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analyses clearly distinguished this strain from its closest phylogenetic neighbours. Thus, strain R366(T) represents a novel species of the genus Sphingopyxis, for which the name Sphingopyxis solisilvae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is R366(T) (= KEMB 9005451(T) = KACC 19003(T) = JCM 31675(T)).