Sphingobacterium anhuiense sp. nov., isolated from forest soil.

A Gram-negative bacterium, designated strain CW 186(T), was isolated from forest soil in Anhui province, China. Cells of strain CW 186(T) were strictly aerobic, non-motile and rod-shaped. The strain grew optimally at 25-30 degrees C and pH 6.0-8.0. The major cellular fatty acids of strain CW 186(T) were iso-C(15:0) (32.2%), iso-C(17:0) 3-OH (9.8%) and summed feature 3 (iso-C(15:0) 2-OH and/or C(16:1)omega7c; 33.7%). The predominant isoprenoid quinone was MK-7. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 36.3 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis using 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain CW 186(T) formed a monophyletic cluster with Sphingobacterium daejeonense LMG 23402(T), Sphingobacterium composti LMG 23401(T), Sphingobacterium composti DSM 18850(T), Sphingobacterium mizutaii ATCC 33299(T) and Sphingobacterium spiritivorum ATCC 33861(T). Sequence similarities were less than 94% (the maximal similarity was about 93.9% to S. composti LMG 23401(T)) to Sphingobacterium species with validly published names. A polyphasic taxonomic study including chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that strain CW 186(T) should be classified as representing a novel species of the genus Sphingobacterium, for which the name Sphingobacterium anhuiense sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CW 186(T) (=KCTC 22209(T)=CCTCC AB 207197(T)).