Chryseobacterium formosense sp. nov., isolated from the rhizosphere of Lactuca sativa L. (garden lettuce).

A yellow-pigmented bacterial strain (CC-H3-2T), isolated from the rhizosphere of Lactuca sativa L. (garden lettuce) in Taiwan, was investigated using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. The cells were Gram-negative, rod-shaped and non-spore-forming. Phylogenetic analyses using the 16S rRNA gene sequence of the isolate indicated that the organism belongs to the genus Chryseobacterium, with the highest sequence similarity to the type strains of Chryseobacterium indoltheticum (97.7 %), Chryseobacterium scophthalmum (97.5 %), Chryseobacterium joostei (97.2 %) and Chryseobacterium defluvii (97.2 %). The major whole-cell fatty acids were iso-C(15 : 0) (52.2 %) and iso-C(17 : 0) 3-OH. DNA-DNA hybridization experiments revealed levels of only 27.4 % to C. scophthalmum, 27.1 % to C. indoltheticum, 14.1 % to C. joostei and 7.8 % to C. defluvii. DNA-DNA relatedness and biochemical and chemotaxonomic properties demonstrate that strain CC-H3-2T represents a novel species, for which the name Chryseobacterium formosense sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CC-H3-2T (=CCUG 49271T=CIP 108367T).