Mucilaginibacter oryzae sp. nov., isolated from soil of a rice paddy

A Gram-negative-staining, non-spore-forming bacterium devoid of flagella, designated strain B9(T), was isolated from rice paddy soil associated with the roots of Oryza sativa collected from Jinju, South Korea. Cells were straight rods, were catalase- and oxidase-positive and were able to hydrolyse pectin, xylan and laminarin. Growth of strain B9(T) was observed between 15 and 35 degrees C (optimum 25-30 degrees C) and between pH 5.0 and 8.0 (optimum pH 6.5-7.5). Strain B9(T) contained menaquinone-7 (MK-7) as a major isoprenoid quinone and summed feature 3 (C(16 : 1)omega7c and/or iso-C(15 : 0) 2-OH), iso-C(15 : 0) and C(16 : 0) as major fatty acids. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 44.4 mol%. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain B9(T) belonged to the genus Mucilaginibacter, a member of the family Sphingobacteriaceae, and was most closely related to Mucilaginibacter kameinonensis SCK(T) (95.9 % sequence similarity). On the basis of chemotaxonomic data and molecular properties, strain B9(T) represents a novel species of the genus Mucilaginibacter, for which the name Mucilaginibacter oryzae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is B9(T) (=KACC 12816(T) =DSM 19975(T)).