Chryseobacterium rhizoplanae sp nov., isolated from the rhizoplane environment

A slightly yellow pigmented strain (JM-534(T)) isolated from the rhizoplane of a field-grown Zea mays plant was investigated using a polyphasic approach for its taxonomic allocation. Cells of the isolate were observed to be rod-shaped and to stain Gram-negative. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that the isolate had the highest sequence similarities to Chryseobacterium lactis (98.9 %), Chryseobacterium joostei and Chryseobacterium indologenes (both 98.7 %), and Chryseobacterium viscerum (98.6 %). Sequence similarities to all other Chryseobacterium species were 98.5 % or below. The fatty acid analysis of the strain resulted in a Chryseobacterium typical pattern consisting mainly of the fatty acids C-15:0 iso, C-15:0 iso 2-OH, C-17:1 iso omega 9c, and C-17:0 iso 3-OH. DNA-DNA hybridizations with the type strains of C. lactis, C. joostei, C. viscerum and C. indologenes resulted in values below 70 %. Genomic fingerprinting showed that the isolate was very different to the type strains of these species. Differentiating biochemical and chemotaxonomic properties showed that the isolate JM-534(T) represents a novel species, for which the name Chryseobacterium rhizoplanae sp. nov. (type strain JM-534(T) = LMG 28481(T) = CCM 8544(T) = CIP 110828(T)) is proposed.