Leifsonia ginsengi sp. nov., isolated from ginseng root.

A Gram-positive, rod-shaped, non-motile bacterium, designated strain wged11T, was isolated from the root of ginseng, and its taxonomic position was established using a polyphasic approach. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that this organism formed a robust clade with recognized species of the genus Leifsonia. Strain wged11T was characterized by a high content of omega-cyclohexylundecanoic and anteiso- and iso-branched saturated fatty acids, MK-11 as the major menaquinone and DL-2,4-diaminobutyric acid in its cell-wall peptidoglycan. The DNA G+C content of strain wged11T was 66.4 mol%. Levels of similarity between the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain wged11(T) and those of the type strains of other members of the genus Leifsonia ranged from 94.7 to 97.6 %. The mean level of DNA-DNA relatedness between strain wged11T and Leifsonia poae DSM 15202T, its nearest phylogenetic neighbour, was 35.3 %. Based on these findings, strain wged11T (=CGMCC 4.3491T=JCM 13908T) is proposed as the type strain of a novel species of the genus Leifsonia, Leifsonia ginsengi sp. nov.