Chromobacterium sphagni sp nov., an insecticidal bacterium isolated from Sphagnum bogs

Sixteen isolates of Gram-reaction-negative, motile, violet-pigmented bacteria were isolated from Sphagnum bogs in West Virginia and Maine, USA. 16S rRNA gene sequences and fatty acid analysis revealed a high degree of relatedness among the isolates, and genome sequencing of two isolates, IIBBL 14B-1(T) and IIBBL 37-2 (from West Virginia and Maine, respectively), revealed highly similar genomic sequences. The average nucleotide identity (gANI) calculated for these two isolates was found to be in excess of 99 %, but did not exceed 88% when comparing either isolate with genomic sequences of Chromobacterium violaceum ATCC 12472(T), C. haemolyticum DSM 19808(T), C. piscinae ND17, C. subtsugae PRAA4-1(T), C. vaccinii MWU205(T) or C. amazonense CBMAI 310(T). Collectively, gANI and 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons suggested that isolates IIBBL 14B-1(T) and IIBBL 37-2 were most closely related to C. subtsugae, but represented a distinct species. We propose the name Chromobacterium sphagni sp. nov. for this taxon; the type strain is IIBBL 14B-1(T) (=NRRL B-67130(T)=JCM 31882(T)).