Flavobacterium panaciterrae sp. nov., a β-glucosidase producing bacterium with ginsenoside-converting activity isolated from the soil of a ginseng field.

The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain DCY69(T) is JX233806. A Gram-reaction-negative, oxidase- and catalase-positive, non-gliding motile strain, designated strain DCY69(T), was isolated from the soil of a ginseng field in the Republic of Korea. Colonies of strain DCY69(T) were circular, 0.5-1.5 mm diameter, yellow, and convex on an R2A agar plate after 2 days. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain DCY69(T) belonged to the genus Flavobacterium with 90.5-98.3% gene sequence similarity. The major predominant quinone was MK-6. The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C15:0, iso-C17:0 3-OH, iso-C15:0 3-OH and summed feature 3 (containing C16:1ω7c and/or C16:1ω6c). The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, one unidentified aminolipid and unidentified polar lipids (L1, L2). The genomic DNA G+C content of strain DCY69(T) was 35.0mol%. The strain DCY69(T) transformed ginsenoside Rb1 into Rd and F2. Based on the polyphasic taxonomic data, strain DCY69(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Flavobacterium, for which the name Flavobacterium panaciterrae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is DCY69(T)(= KCTC 32392(T) = JCM 19161(T)), isolated from the soil of a ginseng field in the Republic of Korea.