Niabella aurantiaca gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from a greenhouse soil in Korea.

An orange-coloured bacterial strain, designated R2A15-11(T), was isolated from greenhouse soil. The strain was found to be strictly aerobic, Gram-negative, non-spore-forming and non-flagellated. The cells were short rods (0.7-0.9x1.0-1.5 mum) and produced flexirubin. Growth of the strain was observed at 10-35 degrees C, pH 5.0-8.0 and 0-3 % (w/v) NaCl. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was MK-7. The major fatty acids were iso-C(15 : 0), iso-C(15 : 1) G, iso-C(17 : 0) 3-OH and summed feature 3 (comprising iso-C(15 : 0) 2-OH and/or C(16 : 1)omega7c). The genomic DNA G+C content was 45.0 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain R2A15-11(T) revealed a clear affiliation with the phylum Bacteroidetes, and the highest levels of sequence similarity were found with respect to Terrimonas ferruginea ATCC 13524(T) (91.5 %), Terrimonas lutea DY(T) (90.2 %), Niastella yeongjuensis GR20-13(T) (89.9 %) and Niastella koreensis GR20-10(T) (89.7 %). On the basis of the polyphasic evidence from this study, strain R2A15-11(T) represents a novel genus and species, for which the name Niabella aurantiaca gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Niabella aurantiaca is R2A15-11(T) (=KACC 11698(T)=DSM 17617(T)).