Sphingomonas zeae sp. nov., isolated from the stem of Zea mays

A yellow-pigmented bacterial isolate (strain JM-791T) obtained from the healthy internal stem tissue of 1-month-old corn (Zea mays, cultivar 'Sweet Belle') grown at the Plant Breeding Unit of the E.V. Smith Research Center in Tallassee (Elmore county), Alabama, USA, was taxonomically characterized. The study employing a polyphasic approach, including 16S RNA gene sequence analysis, physiological characterization, estimation of the ubiquinone and polar lipid patterns, and fatty acid composition, revealed that strain JM-791T shared 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities with type strains of Sphingomonas paucimobilis (98.3%), Sphingomonas pseudosanguinis (97.5%) and Sphingomonas yabuuchiae (97.4%), but also showed pronounced differences, both genotypically and phenotypically. On the basis of these results, a novel species of the genus Sphingomonas is described, for which we propose the name Sphingomonas zeae sp. nov. with the type strain JM-791T ( = LMG 28739T = CCM 8596T).