Rhizobium rosettiformans sp. nov., isolated from a hexachlorocyclohexane dump site, and reclassification of Blastobacter aggregatus Hirsch and Muller 1986 as Rhizobium aggregatum comb. nov.

A Gram-negative, rod-shaped, motile, aerobic bacterial strain, W3(T), was isolated from hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH)-contaminated groundwater from Lucknow, India, and its taxonomic position was determined using a polyphasic approach. Strain W3(T) shared highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 97.8 % with Rhizobium selenitireducens B1(T), followed by Rhizobium daejeonense L61(T) (97.7 %), Rhizobium radiobacter ATCC 19358(T) (97.5 %) and Blastobacter aggregatus IFAM 1003(T) (97.2 %). Strain W3(T) formed a monophyletic clade with Blastobacter aggregatus IFAM 1003(T) ( = DSM 1111(T)) in the cluster of species of the genus Rhizobium. Phylogenetic analyses of strain W3(T) using atpD and recA gene sequences confirmed the phylogenetic arrangements obtained by using 16S rRNA gene sequences. Hence, the taxonomic characterization of B. aggregatus DSM 1111(T) was also undertaken. Strains W3(T) and B. aggregatus DSM 1111(T) contained summed feature 8 (18 : 1ω7c and/or 18 : 1ω6c; 65.4 and 70.8 %, respectively) as the major fatty acid, characteristic of the genus Rhizobium. DNA-DNA relatedness of strain W3(T) with Rhizobium selenitireducens LMG 24075(T), Rhizobium daejeonense DSM 17795(T), Rhizobium radiobacter DSM 30147(T) and B. aggregatus DSM 1111(T) was 42, 34, 30 and 34 %, respectively. The DNA G+C contents of strain W3(T) and B. aggregatus DSM 1111(T) were 62.3 and 62.7 mol%, respectively. A nifH gene encoding dinitrogenase reductase was detected in strain W3(T) but not in B. aggregatus DSM 1111(T). Based on the results obtained by phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic analyses, phenotypic characterization and DNA-DNA hybridization, it is concluded that strain W3(T) represents a novel species of the genus Rhizobium, for which the name Rhizobium rosettiformans sp. nov. is proposed (type strain W3(T)  = CCM 7583(T)  = MTCC 9454(T)). It is also proposed that Blastobacter aggregatus Hirsch and Müller 1986 be transferred to the genus Rhizobium as Rhizobium aggregatum comb. nov. (type strain IFAM 1003(T)  = DSM 1111(T)  = ATCC 43293(T)).