Sphingobacterium composti sp. nov., isolated from cotton-waste composts.

A Gram-negative, strictly aerobic, short rod-shaped, non-motile bacterial strain designated 4M24(T) was isolated from cotton-waste compost. Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain 4M24(T) revealed that it is a member of the genus Sphingobacterium, sharing 88.5-94.5 % sequence similarity with type strains of the genus Sphingobacterium and being most closely related to Sphingobacterium daejeonense TR6-04(T) (94.5 % sequence similarity) and Sphingobacterium mizutaii ATCC 33299(T) (92.2 % similarity). The major fatty acids of strain 4M24(T) grown on trypticase soy agar medium were summed feature 3 (iso-C(15 : 0) 2-OH and/or C(16 : 1)omega7c; 37.5 %), iso-C(15 : 0) (29.5 %) and iso-C(17 : 0) 3-OH (19.7 %). The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 42.3 mol%. On the basis of phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, strain 4M24(T) represents a novel species of the genus Sphingobacterium, for which the name Sphingobacterium composti sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 4M24(T) (=KACC 11313(T)=DSM 18850(T)).