Alishewanella agri sp. nov., isolated from landfill soil

Strain BL06(T) was isolated from landfill soil in Pohang, Korea. Strain BL06(T) is Gram-negative, aerobic, non-motile and rod-shaped. For growth, the NaCl range is 0-6% (w/v), the temperature range is 10-44 degrees C and the pH range is 5.5-12.0. Based on the 16S rRNA gene and gyrase B (gyrB) gene sequences, phylogenetic analysis showed that strain BL06(T) is associated with the genus Alishewanella and related closely to the type strains of Alishewanella species (98.8% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Alishewanella aestuarii, 98.7% to Alishewanella fetalis and 98.5% to Alishewanella jeotgali). Physiological and biochemical tests verified that strain BL06(T) is genotypically and phenotypically different from previously described species in the genus Alishewanella. DNA-DNA hybridization experiments showed that relatedness between the genomic DNA of strain BL06(T) and type strains of other Alishewanella species is <41%. These findings suggest strongly that the strain represents a novel species, despite high 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity between strain BL06(T) and related strains. Therefore, strain BL06(T) (=KCTC 22400(T)=JCM 15597(T)) is proposed to represent a novel species in the genus Alishewanella, named Alishewanella agri sp. nov.