Rhizobium hedysari sp. nov., a novel species isolated from a root nodule of Hedysarum multijugum in China.

A strain 5-1-2T was isolated from a root nodule of Hedysarum multijugum collected from Zhangye city, Gansu province, north-west China. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence and other housekeeping genes (recA and atpD) indicated that the strain represents a novel species in the genus Rhizobium close to the strain Rhizobium subbaraonis JC85T with similarities of 98.27, 88.92 and 89.62%, respectively. Strain 5-1-2T contained Q-10 as the predominant ubiquinone. Our results showed that the major fatty acids were feature 8 (C18:1 ω7c and/or C18:1 ω6c; 38.90%). In addition, the DNA-DNA hybridizations with the type strains R. subbaraonis JC85T and Rhizobium halophytocola YC6881T were 39.2 ± 2.1 and 44.3 ± 1.9, respectively. Therefore, a novel species Rhizobium hedysari sp. nov. is proposed, and 5-1-2T (=CGMCC1.15677T = NBRC112532T) is designated as the type strain.