Pantoea vagans sp nov., Pantoea eucalypti sp nov., Pantoea deleyi sp nov and Pantoea anthophila sp nov.

Bacteria isolated from eucalyptus leaves and shoots showing symptoms of blight and die-back collected in Uganda, Uruguay and Argentina and from maize displaying brown stalk rot symptoms in South Africa were tentatively placed in the genus Pantoea on the basis of phenotypic and biochemical tests. These isolates, together with two strains (LMG 2558 and LMG 2560) previously assigned to Pantoea agglomerans based on protein electrophoregrams but later excluded from this species, were further investigated using molecular techniques. 16S rRNA gene sequencing and multilocus sequence analyses (MLSA) revealed that the strains were phylogenetically closely related to Pantoea agglomerans, Pantoea stewartii and Pantoea ananatis. MLSA and amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis placed the strains into four separate clusters, not containing any of the type strains of species of the genus Pantoea. DNA-DNA hybridization confirmed the classification of the isolates into four novel species, for which the names Pantoea vagans sp. nov. (type strain R-21566(T) = LMG 24199(T) = BCC 105(T) = BD 765(T)) Pantoea eucalypti sp. nov. (type strain R-25678(T) = LMG 24197(T) = BCC 076(T) = BD 769(T)), Pantoea deleyi sp. nov. (type strain R-31523(T) = LMG 24200(T) = BCC 109(T) = BD767(T)) and Pantoea anthophila sp. nov. (type strain LMG 2558(T) = BD 871(T) = NCPPB 1682(T)) are proposed.