Pedobacter panacis sp. nov., isolated from Panax ginseng soil.

A novel strain, DCY108T was isolated from soil of a Panax ginseng field, Yeoncheon province (38°04'N 126°57'E), Republic of Korea. Strain DCY108T is Gram-negative, non-motile, non-flagellate, rod-shaped, and aerobic. The bacterium grows optimally at 25-30 °C, pH 6.5-7.0 and 1 % NaCl. Phylogenetically, strain DCY108T is closely related to Pedobacter jejuensis JCM 18824T, Pedobacter aquatilis JCM 13454T, Pedobacter kyungheensis LMG 26577T and the type strain of the genus Pedobacter heparinus DSM 2366T. The DNA-DNA relatedness values between strain DCY108T and its close phylogenetic neighbors were below 30.0 %. The DNA G+C content of strain DCY108T was determined to be 45.1 mol%. The predominant quinone was menaquinone 7 (MK-7). The major polar lipids were identified as phosphatidylethanolamine and three unidentified aminolipids AL1, AL13 and AL17. Iso-C15:00, iso-C17:03OH and summed feature 3 (C16:1 ω7c/C16:1 ω6c) were identified as the major fatty acids present in strain DCY108T. The results of physiological and biochemical tests allowed strain DCY108T to be differentiated phenotypically from other recognized species belonging to the genus Pedobacter. Therefore, it is suggested that the newly isolated organism represents a novel species, for which the name Pedobacter panacis sp. nov is proposed with the type strain designated as DCY108T (=CCTCCAB 2015196T = KCTC 42748T).